Mbabane: About 70 percent of businesses are likely to defy covid-19 regulations. This was an observation made by the Southern African Research Foundation for Economic Development (SARFED) in its weekly Economic and Business Commentary Volume 4 of October, 2020.
In its observation, SARFED said having conducted a snapshot business compliance survey among 50 companies along the Mbabane-Manzini business corridor, the findings of the study indicated that only 15 out of 50 businesses which are also 30 percent of the targeted population still maintained compliance and adherence to COVID-19 regulations.
The rest of the inspected firms had compromised the rules and regulations of the country’s COVID-19 Act, causing potential threat to the public.
SARFED noted that most of the businesses were reluctant with basic public health precautions such as sanitization process before transaction, wearing of face masks, as well as maintaining social distance by having a limited number of people in the shop. In some instances, employees were engaged in business activities without proper protection against COVID-19.
Compliance
As a civil society that promotes sustainable economic empowerment and development, SARFED has encouraged and warned businesses that didn’t comply with government’s efforts to reinforce health and safety measures for the continuity of the economy.
Firms should understand that at the center of economic growth, compliance especially in public remains paramount, issued SARFED. Its defilement contributes to the scaling down of economic performance.
SARFED said firms must take individual responsibility to ensure that their trading environments were not only for marketing purposes but also for the safety of consumers. These institutions must understand that taking safety and health precautions was part of the social responsibility.
It is for this reason that periodic checkups would be necessary to ensure compliance, issued SARFED.
SARFED said consumers must understand that it is against their fundamental human rights if they were exposed to hazardous trading environment. According to the United Nation’s sustainable development goal 3, there must be good health and wellbeing of all. This must not be only being considered as a duty for government, but the business fraternities as well as they are a critical partner to government since they play a vital role in serving the general public.
Economy
On the other hand, SARFED stated that research indicates that Eswatini’s economy has been under performing in the past five years with a significance decline in performance from 2.4 percent in 2018 to 1.3 percent in 2019. This is expected to reach the negative output in the event that strategic economic recovery measures were put in place as the Gross Domestic Product for the country (GDP) growth is expected to fall by 6.7 percent because of the lockdown and disruptions in economic activities.
“With the lockdown, there is much less government revenue being collected as some economic activities have been significantly reduced,” said a statement issued by SARFED. According to research, the country’s overall revenue is expected to fall by E2.7 billion to a total of E18.3 billion instead of E21 billion.
However, if the government expenditures are maintained at E24 billion, the budget deficit will still grow to E5.6 billion and to widen to 9.1 percent of GDP. This is likely to increase the financial needs of the country which also has negative ripple effects to the business community and consumers in general.
If government does not continue to reinforce businesses adherence to public precautionary measures, the economy might slide to a worst situation in the event of the second wave of COVID-19, issued SARFED.
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