Police, Housing close down harbor cafes

Police and Housing Ministry officials have closed down cafes located in Male’ harbor area.

“Sun” reporters visited the area Saturday morning and observed that all harbor cafes had been closed down. There had been 42 cafes and two shops in the area.

An owner of a harbor café said that the cafes were shut down late Friday night by a team of Special Operations police officers and Housing Ministry officials.

He said that police had asked them why they were still running the cafes against Housing Ministry order to voluntarily close down the places, while it had been stated in an official document issued to them earlier that a three-month notice would be issued before closing down the cafes.

Harbor cafes closed down. Sun photo: Ahmed Sharwan

The issue had dragged on into a court battle between the café owners and government.

He said that they had filed a civil lawsuit regarding the issue, which ended with Civil Court ruling that government needed to issue three months’ notice before closing down the cafes.

However, government had won on appeal and the issue was now at Supreme Court – with a ruling still to be made.

He said that he had told the police he did not believe authorities should be able to close down the cafes before the issue was resolved in court.

Harbor cafes closed down. Sun photo: Ahmed Sharwan

“We dutifully pay tax to the government. We dutifully pay the water and electricity bills. We therefore do not believe they can close down these cafes before a decision is made by Supreme Court,” said the café owner.

Employees of the cafes are now packing up the items used in the cafes.

Housing Ministry officials said Friday night that the agreement with the café owners had expired. And that they had issued order for harbor cafes to be vacated on February 4 and 18.

They gave a final three-day warning to voluntarily vacate the area on April 25.

They had said that they would physically close down the cafes and would bear no responsibility to property damage if café owners did not voluntarily close down their businesses.