Help businesses to survive recession

The recent move by Shoprite Holdings Ltd of South Africa to close another shop in Tanzania is sending shivers among customers and workers across the country.

Over the past three years, Shoprite Tanzania has closed four of its outlets since it started its operations in the country in December 2001.

With the fate of their employment unclear, workers of Shoprite and the government need to be told the truth about the conduct of the business in the country so that the relevant authorities should take stock of its operations.

The Shoprite Group acknowledged that during the reporting period it closed one of the two smaller stores as it proved too small to accommodate a sufficient level of growth.

However, supermarket business in Tanzania is still profitable.

Shoprite has said that although all the stores in the country performed satisfactorily, the business in Tanzania still lacks the critical mass needed for breaking even.

The government must take steps to stop this sort of closures at this time of global recession.