Reactions of Small to Medium Enterprises in Masvingo, Zimbabwe to Covid 19: Implications on Productivity

The COVID 19 pandemic has had a significant impact on livelihoods; the virus has affected not only the health sector but the work life of people as the government instituted measures to contain the spread of the virus. This study sought to explore how SMEs in Masvingo, Zimbabwe were affected by a government declared lockdown. In particular, the study sought to establish how the SMEs responded to the lockdown, the strategies that they instituted and the implications of the lockdown on the productivity of the SMEs. A qualitative approach was adopted specifically adopting the descriptive case study approach as a research methodology. Ten participants who participated in this study were conveniently selected from 7 purposively selected SMEs in Masvingo town. Indepth interviews were used for data collection. Results indicated that SMEs were negatively affected by the lockdown. Most of them stopped operations and had to lay off some of their employees. Production in most cases was halted and this entailed that the future after the lockdown was bleak for them. The SMEs appealed for government support to enable them to resuscitate after the lockdown.