The government says the first stage of assisting businesses that lost their merchandise during the January 2019 riots has been accomplished and is now at the final stage.
This was revealed by the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu. He said:
The first stage was to give loans to all whose stocks were looted earlier this year. They have started paying back and we are getting close to a $1 million every month in repayments. We have also managed to assist retailers whose equipment was damaged.
… We are now working on the final stage (of assisting businesses that were affected during the demonstrations), which is reconstructing the burnt down structures.
We expect that by the end of October we should be nearing a process whereby we will be handing over the facilities and this shows that the Government is committed to assisting industry and commerce.