Own Correspondent

After yesterday’s meeting of the ad hoc Inter-ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19, the Government confirmed that filling stations, as a defined essential service, can remain open and sell fuel during the hours for which they were originally licensed and are not obliged to close at 4.30pm.

Regarding the transport subsector, particularly at a time fuel supplies are inconsistent countrywide with long queues becoming the order of the day at most filling stations, Minister Mutsvangwa clarified the legal position in terms of operating hours for fuel retailers.

“Following reports on erratic hours of operation by some fuel retail outlets, the Attorney-General has clarified that fuel retail outlets are classified as an essential service under the lockdown regulations,” she said, adding:

“As such, retail outlets are allowed to conduct trade during their normal hours of operation. Their hours of operation are not confined to 8am to 4.30pm which applies to some other exempted categories of business.”

In his Covid-19 update address at State House recently, President Mnangagwa said the threat posed by Covid-19 is still hanging over the nation, therefore, citizens should embrace the new normal that has been brought by the plague, which at present has no cure.

Under level two lockdown, the country is gradually returning to full economic activity, with an orderly reopening of the informal sector under the “new normal” spelt out by the President: of masks, registration with local authorities, high levels of personal hygiene, social distancing and minimum non-business travel.

Agriculture, food markets, tobacco marketing, and most of the formal sectors have already been allowed to reopen under set conditions.