Mozambique: 70 companies in Manica suspended activities

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Mozambique: 70 companies in Manica suspended activities

5:36 CAT | 04 Aug 2020

70 companies in the central Mozambican province of Manica have suspended their activities, since the government declared a state of emergency on 1 April, to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

These stoppages have directly affected 1,131 workers, according to the Manica Provincial Director of Labour, Ema Catana.

Speaking in the provincial capital, Chimoio, on Tuesday, she said that some of the workers have lost their jobs definitively, while others have been laid off temporarily, and are waiting for information from the government as to whether the restrictive measures introduced to combat the pandemic will be relaxed.

But 44 of the 70 companies who had suspended their operations have now reopened, while the other 26 remain paralysed. Four companies have informed the provincial government of their definitive closure, and have compensated their workers in accordance with Mozambican labour legislation. These four companies employed 55 workers.

In quite a different category are the enterprises that were deliberately closed down by the government to halt the spread of Covid-19. Under the state of emergency, all bars and places of nocturnal entertainment were closed, for fear that they would attract crowds among whom the virus would easily spread. Catana said that, during the four months of the state of emergency, 301 bars and similar establishments were closed in Manica.

280 Manica enterprises took advantage of the government’s offer to forgive fines charged for failing to contribute to the social security system, and to reduce the interest on overdue payments. Catana said that 69 of these taxpayers have now completely paid off their social security debt.

“The province has taxpayers who are in debt”, she said. “What we are doing is responding to the requests for forgiving the fines and overdue interest and quickly solving the problems related with these debts”.

She said that her directorate has also distributed printed cotton fabric throughout the province in order to produce face masks. 40 self-employed tailors have made 18,000 face masks, which were then distributed to the public.

Source: AIM