Ntsebeng Motsoeli
THE government has restored the six operating hours for some essential service providers to avoid the congestion of shoppers during the ongoing 21-day Coronavirus (COVID-19) induced lockdown.
Trade and Industry minister Halebonoe Setšabi told the Lesotho Times yesterday that essential businesses will now open at 8am and close at 2pm. This after the government had slashed the operating hours to five hours (8am to 11am) last week.
Prime Minister Thomas Thabane last month imposed a 21-day national lockdown on all non-essential services ending on 21 April 2020. The lockdown is a precautionary measure to combat infections. People are expected to stay at home during the lockdown except for those working in gazetted essential services.
Among the essential services are banks, general cafes, supermarkets, farm feeds, wholesalers, meat wholesalers, domestic fuel dealers, bakeries, butcheries, green grocers and dairy shops. These were initially expected to open 10am to 4pm.
Funeral homes, pharmacies, food and medicine manufacturing companies and garages were allowed to open for 24 hours.
However, hundreds of people in Maseru disregarded the lockdown and continued moving around freely in the first week.
This prompted the army to lobby the government to review the closing times. Health Minister Nkaku Kabi on 3 April 2020 published a gazette that revised the operating times from 8am to 11am. Mr Kabi’s gazette came into effect this week.
The move was met with mixed feelings as most businesses were left with only five hours to operate. This also resulted in serious congestion at supermarkets and wholesales starting Monday.
And now the government has reverted to the original six operating hours.
Mr Setšabi yesterday said cabinet had directed him to extend the operating times by another three hours from 8am to 2pm.
Lesotho is in the second week of the lockdown and the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) and the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) have deployed their officers onto the roads to restrict non-essential.
But Mr Setšabi said his tours of Maseru had proven that there were still large numbers of people roaming the streets. He said Mr Kabi’s gazette was published after army commander Major General Mojalefa Letsoela’s recommendation to limit the operating hours of essential services and curb excessive movement of people.
“The army commander (Major Gen Letsoela) also recommended that we cut down the operating hours for them to successfully monitor the movement of people during the lockdown,” Mr Setšabi said.
He however, said while adhering to Major Gen Letsoela’s advice worked, he also noted that the congestion of shoppers disregarded the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) social-distancing protocols as shoppers scrambled to beat the 11am closing time in grocery shops. The WHO has recommended that people keep at least a metre apart to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Therefore, the government has now extended the closing time to 2pm daily while providers of essential services will be closed on Sundays and holidays.
“The gazette is at the government printers… we hope to publish it tomorrow (today),” Mr Setšabi said.
