City to overhaul licensing laws

MUTARE City Council is realigning its shop licensing regime in tandem with Government's ease of doing business policy, The Herald has learnt.

The city's licensing regime has not been amended for decades with some existing laws having been inherited from the colonial era.

Council spokesperson Mr Spren Mutiwi said council decided to change the shop licensing regime as it was too cumbersome.

Mr Mutiwi said there were some shop licensing statutory instruments that were out of sync with the modern trends of doing business.

"Our old shop licensing system was very cumbersome. You would see that someone would go for up to six months trying to get a licence. We are trying to address it in line with Government policy of ease of doing business," he said.

"We have since agreed that shop licences are supposed to be done within 30 days unlike the previous arrangement where it would take about six months. We are even trying to come up with a better system where someone will simply walk into an office and come out with a licence.

"It is also correct to say that the licensing regime has not been addressed for so many years. We have agreed that the laws be revisited."

Mr Mutiwi said Mutare City Council had been lagging behind in terms of amending by-laws, something that had been happening in other local authorities.

"Our thrust is to try and operate like other local authorities countrywide. We want to make the process easy for business people and even to those who want to venture into new businesses," he said.

Acting director of health services Mr Mathew Dukwa and chamber secretary Mr Cephas Vuta have been seized with the task of realigning and finding ways of implementing the new laws.