GOVERNMENT has come to the rescue of tenants and property owners struggling to pay their rentals and mortgage loans as a result of the lockdown and provided a moratorium for them to pay their obligations in instalments after the restrictions have been lifted.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
Speaking during a post-Cabinet Press briefing in Harare yesterday, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said: “That both residential and commercial properties be afforded a moratorium on evictions in respect to applicable lease obligations due for the period from April to the end of the lockdown, including the payment of rentals due to those months.”
Property owners who failed to pay their mortgage loans to banks were spared from paying interest charges.
Government indicated that the President was considering cancelling rent payments altogether and that an economic stimulus package was also on the cards.
Cabinet said government will soon roll out compulsory COVID-19 tests on police officers, healthcare workers, immigration staff and their families for coronavirus, and communities where coronavirus positive cases were recorded.
Government has also released $100 million to buy all personal protective equipment available on the local market so that it’s given to frontline responders.
