admin
Business Writer
As President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced new lockdown measures that will allow restaurants to cater for takeaway and delivery customers only, players in the sector have said the partial-operational status might result in closure of at least half of the operators.
According to Restaurant Operators’ Association of Zimbabwe (ROAZ) president, Bongai Zamchiya, the non-operational or partial-operational status of restaurants since March last year has created a massive problem for the trade forcing some operators to close permanently.
Since the initial lockdown of March 30, 2020, it is estimated that up to 100 restaurants have not re-opened, having not been able to survive the initial closure and the subsequent partial operation phases.
Research carried out by ROAZ and tabled with the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, also shows that an estimated 2000 jobs were lost last year excluding 2 500 contract workers that also lost their jobs.
Income during the lockdown period starting January 3, 2021 has been 0 percent for non-operational operators and between 8 percent and 15 percent for most of those that have been allowed to operate, while a number of takeaway-only operations report income of 20 percent of normal, according to ROAZ.
With restaurants still expected to meet operating costs such as rentals, wages and other inputs, half of existing operations are on the brink of permanent closure, according to Zamchiya.
“We are fully supportive of the national effort to contain and eliminate Covid-19, but the current dispensation for the restaurant trade is no longer tenable and we face a huge level of business closures and job losses, not only in the restaurant trade but among the many suppliers to the trade,” he said.
“Takeaways, while welcome as an income lifeline during lockdown, do not begin to replace the level of custom enjoyed in full operation as sit-down operations,” reads part of the research into the effects of Lockdown on the Restaurant trade and suppliers, carried out by ROAZ.
It is estimated that between 450 and 500 business operations form the principal supplier base for restaurants.
Of these, 15 percent are large-scale operations while the remainder are Small to Medium Enterprises. Among the large suppliers, income from restaurants accounts for anything between 5 percent and 20 percent of overall income, while for the SMEs there is a higher dependency, with reports of income from restaurants of between 40 percent and 100 percent of total income.
“The future of up to 100 such SMEs in under threat at present, and continued absence of operation among the trade will result in closures and layoffs, either temporary or, most likely, permanently,” according to ROAZ.
ROAZ reckons that the short-term prospects for restaurants is bleak, unless operational capacity is restored, and that up to 50 percent of operations, employing up to 4 500 to 5 500 people, will be closed permanently, with loss of jobs and a major loss of income to suppliers.
“Job losses within these SMEs and also within larger operations could reach as high as 3 500.”
ROAZ is thus calling for immediate re-opening of restaurants, phased from an initial 50 percent capacity leading to full capacity over time.
“When we were partially operational in the second half of 2020 we showed that safe and secure dining is possible and easy to achieve, and we are requesting urgent attention to our crisis, and that of our suppliers, from farming through to manufacturing,” reads part of the statement released by ROAZ.
Bongani Ndlovu