The Sunday Mail
Enacy Mapakame
Business Reporter
The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak will leave many local businesses gasping for breath as it is now beginning to take its toll.
There is need for business survival strategies now and beyond the pandemic as well as protecting workers from contracting the disease.
Businesses have already scaled down operations, completely closed, while others have adopted virtual offices as part of efforts to limit the spread of the virus.
There are also fears an economy like Zimbabwe, already working on recovery after effects of Cyclone Idai, may not be able to sustain the shutdowns and virtual office model due to high data costs and erratic power supplies that may make working from home increasingly difficult.
The local economy is also largely informal.
Labour market analyst Mr John Mufukari said while measures are being taken to limit the spread of the virus, there is also need to ensure businesses survive.
Both business and employees have a symbiotic relationship.
“Workers have to see that business survives this catastrophe and business will ensure that labour also survives. It is a sad reality that we are not prepared,” said Mr Mufukari, who is also the former chief executive officer of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz). “Business is going to be in a fix and when that (natural disasters) happens, obviously labour will also be in trouble.
This is why for the entire time I spent at Emcoz, I was preaching the narrative that business and labour are in a marriage without the option of a divorce,” he said.
Covid-19 was first detected in China last December and has caused thousands of deaths across the globe.
The number of confirmed cases in Zimbabwe had reached five by Friday.
The pandemic has caused significant haemorrhage on the global economy and disrupted supply chains.
Consumers have also been panic-buying in order to stock up basic commodities in the event Government resorts to a total lockdown.
A quick survey by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has since shown that the manufacturing industry suffered 46 percent disruptions in supply chains due to the pandemic.
President Mnangagwa has already declared a state of national disaster.
Companies are currently taking action to limit its spread. Local service providers and banking firms, for instance, have also downsized their branches and encouraged the market to make use of e-commerce.
London-headquartered cross-border payments and remittance company, Zympay, also chipped in and waived its service fee for all online payments and transactions to help tackle Covid-19 spread in Zimbabwe by reducing social contact.
But are Zimbabweans ready for this way of doing business or they just do not have an option?
“Virtual offices are not a practical proposition at the moment because load-shedding in most residential areas makes that impossible.
“The IT infrastructure itself is not robust enough. Most employees do not have the hardware. Most use desktops which are office-based,” said Mr Mufukari.
He, however, indicated that it was time for businesses to reward employees that add real value to their operations.
“If an employee shows themselves to be indispensable at the workplace, it will be a foolish employer who gets rid of them because it will be his business that suffers.”
