Club, Restaurants and Entertainment owners Association have petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga seeking a phased reopening of the entertainment sector.
The Association led by their chairperson Tesfalem Gherathu says that with over 70,000 bars, lodges and restaurants closed since March, an estimated five million people have been rendered jobless.
Gherathu told Kadaga that they are failing to pay back loans, while others are being evicted from premises for failing to pay arrears. According to Gherathu, the closure has affected other service providers who include farmers who supply products to Breweries, food, manufacturers of tissue, and detergents among others.
Barbara Natukunda, the proprietor Texas club in Nsambya and a hotel in Kabalagala says that she has lost more than UGX100 million since the lock-down. She says the government should allow them to operate until 10:00 pm.
Singh Katongole, Katongole a bar and restaurant owner says that they are under pressure from landlords who are demanding for rent arrears.
“Because this is one industry which generates which really generate income for the government. Breweries pay a lot of taxes and most of our partners. We employ a lot of people. In Uganda, you can count 100,000 bars and restaurants and they pay taxes… Covid is sad news, a bad disease which we all have to take care of but we are requesting the government to ease us abit so that we can start working and we assure the government that we shall follow all the SOPs.”
Patrick Musinguzi the Publicity secretary of the Association says the closure of the industry has caused them a loss of over 20 billion shillings and want the government to intervene.
He said: “But we want a gradual process through which we can open up. We can observe social distancing and say let one person or two people per table, they drink at a certain time. As time goes on, this pandemic will either go or maybe we shall get a vaccine and definitely we shall open again fully the way we were doing before. But in the meantime we can’t just sit when banks are putting interest on our loans the landlords are chasing us, We are going to die we have loans, we have staked our properties which we worked for, for the last 20 years. You can’t tell me that it should be sold to the bank or the bank should take it over.”
Kadaga promised to look into the matter, after studying the extent to which the people in the entertainment sector have been affected.
Bar, Restaurant Owners Petition Kadaga over Reopening
Government is said to be reviewing some suggestions that were made, in regard to how bars can operate, even amidst the pandemic. Courtesy photo
