By A Correspondent- Only bars and restaurants serving hotel residents are allowed to sell alcohol and any other outlets including supermarkets are banned from doing so, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.
Following a spike in coronavirus cases, Zimbabwe was put under level four lockdown which reintroduced a 6PM to 6AM curfew.
Under the lockdown regulations announced last Saturday by Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the Minister of Health and Child Care only essential businesses such as supermarkets, pharmacies and banks, can remain open and all gatherings such as wedding ceremonies or religious services are banned, with the exception of funerals, which are limited to 30 people.
Yesterday, there was panic on the liquor streets of Bulawayo as imbibers shared pictures of leading supermarkets putting up notices that they were no longer selling alcohol.
Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp were awash with pictures of alcohol sections of different supermarkets shutting down.
Bottle stores, bars and other leisure centres were banned from operating leaving, before yesterday, only supermarkets to sell alcohol during the lockdown.
The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi said Statutory Instrument (SI) 10 of 2021 means that even supermarkets are not supposed to sell alcohol and those who have stopped are doing so correctly under the lockdown regulations.
“The only places that were allowed to sell alcohol are hotels for their residents. If there’s a bottle store in a supermarket it’s supposed to be closed. The SI banned the sale of alcohol in bottle stores, supermarkets, except hotels. Those chain supermarkets have segments, if they have a bottle store in the supermarkets they should be closed. I think they are correct if they are stopping the sale of alcohol,” said Minister Ziyambi.
Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi “Bottle stores and bars are potential hazardous places for the spread of Covid-19. Generally, alcohol leads to non-compliance. Our aim is to ensure that people comply and stay at home and we arrest new infections.”
-statemedia