Mozambique: Business association asks govt to change curfew hours in Greater Maputo – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Business association asks govt to change curfew hours in Greater Maputo – Watch

6:40 CAT | 09 Mar 2021

Screen grab: Miramar

The Association of Commerce, Industry and Services (ACIS) of Mozambique on Monday asked the government to change the night curfew hours for the metropolitan area of Maputo, characterising the present arrangement as “impracticable” for the business sector.

“We believe that this schedule is impracticable,” ACIS executive director Edson Chichongue said, proposing that the curfew start at 11:30 p.m. instead of the current 9:00 p.m..

Edson Chichongue was speaking at a press conference in Maputo about the economic and business implications of the presidential decree regarding Covid-19 restrictions.

In the Greater Maputo area (Maputo, Matola, Marracuene, and Boane) there is a curfew in place since February 5th, from 9 p.m. – 4 a.m. every night.

According to ACIS, in the last 30 days, businesspeople and their employees have reported numerous constraints associated with the current schedule, citing travel to work as one of the main problems.

“The pandemic we are seeing today is having a devastating socio-economic impact. We want to once again ask the government to pay greater attention to the contributions of the private sector, not only by listening, but by considering [the private sector’s position] in decision-making,” Chichongue added.

Among other measures, ACIS also called for “all plans” to introduce or increase fees and taxes during the crisis period “to be stopped” or risk the business sector “collapsing”.

“Even in a highly challenging context like this, there has been a great appetite from the Government, particularly at the level of municipalities, to introduce or hike fees and taxes, increase the suffocation of the business sector,” Chichongue said.

ACIS represents about 600 companies, all of whom have been complaining about the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions imposed since the end of the first quarter of 2020, according to the director.

Mozambique had, by this Tuesday, recorded 700 deaths from Covid-19 and an accumulated total of 62.882 cases, of which 47.729 are recovered, according to the latest update

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 2,593,872 deaths among the more than 116.7 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French AFP news agency.

Source: Lusa / Miramar