South African retail chain supermarket, Shoprite is not closing shop in Malawi.
Labour Minister, Vera Kantukule, gave the assurance in Parliament on Thursday during question time to ministers.
Kantukule was responding to a question from Member of Parliament for Zomba Chisi, Mark Botomani, who asked the minister to respond to social media reports that Shoprite was closing down its business in Malawi.
“Madam Speaker, the reason I am asking the question directly to the Minister of Labour is to do with the many Malawians that are employed by this franchise. There is a lot of discomfort among them and they are keen to know if indeed those rumours are true,” said Botomani.
“Contrary to rumours, Shoprite is not winding up its operations in Malawi. They are just rumours,” said Kantukule in response, adding that the government engaged senior Shoprite management on the matter to verify the claims.
Kantukule assured the house that Shoprite is here to stay and that what they are closing down is its Zomba U-Save shop which for the last three years has been making losses and not its business across Malawi.
“Shoprite is here to stay.” Said Kantukule.
“Shoprite says they are staying in Malawi,” added Finance Minister, Sosten Gwengwe, in support of the fellow minister.
Source:MBC
