The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian nightclub owner says he is losing $125,000 a month due to the COVID-19 enforced shutdown as he blasted the authorities for failing to apply the rules evenly to all operators.

Vernal Major, owner/operator of XScape Lounge, told Tribune Business: “If you make $1.5m in a year, you can divide that up into months and you can see what we are losing during this shutdown. We have about 18 people employed and, by extension, we have another 25 people that depend on the business model.”

He hit out, though, at what he described as an uneven COVID-19 enforcement playing field. He cited one entertainment spot that had violated the curfew three times, yet has still to be charged before the courts, while alleging that other night spots popular with law enforcement officers had been allowed to remain open without any sanctions being applied.

"If I would bring that up that would be something that would haunt me forever," Mr Major said. "Bottom line, this is an unfair situation. It is killing everybody. We are one who went the extra mile in putting in a digital safe-scan temperature check and sanitisation at the entrance, and yet we are still picked on.

“When you look and compare what we have done, and what the church proposed to do, there is no comparison with the two. We far exceed that. This is just a bunch of nonsense. On one hand you understand, and on the next hand you wish that somebody would have the courage to actually sit down and have a conversation with us.... When you have connections, you don’t get charged, so the police can do whatever they want. It is the legal system is what is the problem.”

Bars, clubs, cinemas and other forms of night-time entertainment remain closed under the Government's COVID-19 emergency powers Orders with no indication yet as to when they will be allowed to re-open. The authorities remain concerned that these type of businesses, with many persons packed into enclosed spaces, could further worsen the virus' spread.

Mr Major said November is the earliest he sees his business re-opening. "That’s what I’m seeing," he added. "It’s one thing to take a risk if you are on Bay Street, and the next thing the government says is that we will allow indoor dining and move from there.

"But my advisor told me that unless you have somebody white on your committee and who can speak for you, it doesn’t look like the prime minister would take you on."