ONLY 17 SECTORS TO OPERATE

MBABANE – Revoked!  The joy of non-essential service providers has been short-lived as Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Nxumalo confirmed that as of this morning, their operating permits were revoked.

The 11 service providers had since last week enjoyed the benefits of having their businesses opened following the relaxed partial lockdown announced by the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini.

However, on Wednesday, the PM reversed the relaxed partial lockdown, citing that government had observed with concern that complacency, among the populace, had crept in and it seemed as if it was business as usual, yet positive cases of COVID-19 had doubled in the last week.
Minister Khumalo said as a result of the announcement of the revision of the gradual relaxation of business operations, government had come to the decision to revoke some of the permits issued over the past week.

Relaxed

Initially, 15 business operations had been relaxed, but this number has drastically been cut to only four of those.
Those which have been ‘saved’ include the construction industry, retail outlets which specifically sell baby clothes and essentials, stationery shops and automobile workshops, spares shops, repairs and breakdown services.

However, the minister was specific that the stationery shops and automobile workshops were only allowed to operate daily between 9am and 3pm. Breakdown services will, however, be allowed to operate on extended hours based on emergencies. The businesses that are not expected to operate as of this morning include car dealerships, driving schools, car wash businesses and furniture shops.

Others whose permits have been revoked are agents and consultants, general dealers not selling food items, clothing shops (save for baby clothes), and craft vendors. The rest are photographic studios, casinos and gambling shops.

In essence, the 13 essential service providers on the original list are expected to continue operating as was the case when the partial lockdown was initially implemented by government on March 27, 2020, including the four others whose permits were not revoked. This brings the total to 17 sectors that will be allowed to operate.

The sections which were on the original list include those in the food and agriculture industry, retail and consumer goods suppliers, medical and health and network infrastructure. Khumalo said others allowed to continue operating although strictly under the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines were those in finance and insurance, tourism and hospitality, forestry and sawmills, and hardware shops.

The rest are IT systems and telecommunications, public transport (cross-border), funeral parlours, communications (media) and non-governmental organisations, particularly those servicing essential industries.             

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