Africa-Press – Lesotho. PRIME Minister Moeketsi Majoro says from November 1 only those fully vaccinated will be allowed to sit in restaurants and bars. So, an outing with friends or family will require vaccination certificates.
That doesn’t mean the unvaccinated will be banned from bars and restaurants. They can take their food and drinks home. While the move might seem drastic, it falls in within current global trends to push for vaccine mandates.
Many other countries have imposed similar measures despite howls of protest from the unvaccinated who see this as a violation of their liberties. The fact, though, is that this is a new reality.
And the vaccine mandates are not as draconian as what we have seen over the past year. There was a time when you could not leave your house, work or bury relatives and friends.
The world has since gradually opened up but with conditions. Masks and social distancing are mandatory everywhere. You need a negative Covid-19 certificate to cross the border.
Now the government says only the fully vaccinated will enjoy their food and drinks in bars and restaurants. That decision has however roiled businesses.
Nkeane Motseki, the president of the Lesotho Liquor and Restaurant Owners Association (LLROA), says the decision will promote illegal traders “who will not care whether their customers have vaccination certificates or not”.
Motseki told thepost that while legally operating bars, night clubs and restaurants will be barring customers without vaccination certificates illegal establishments will be taking them in.
“The Prime Minister does not really understand what he is creating,” Motseki said. He said most of their customers have already been put off by their demand for masks.
“What more when we tell them to bring along their IDs and vaccination certificates?”
“The illegal places will make profits while we are busy chasing customers away.
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“This new rule is going to open and extend the market for illegal businesses and hamper our business growth.
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Motseki says many people are already buying from the carwashes that are not licensed to sell alcohol. He is appealing to the government to impose the vaccine mandate in January to allow more people to be vaccinated.
He explains that some people want to vaccinate but are discouraged by the long queues at vaccination centres. He is also worried that it will cost businesses more to enforce the vaccine mandate.
“It will require us to hire more security guards to ensure that we comply with the regulations.
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The decision, he adds, is also ill-timed because businesses are yet to recover from the lockdowns.
“We already retrenched more workers and we lost more money, we cannot afford to increase more workers immediately,” he said.
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