Zimbabwe, like China, in denial of covid-19 and impose 20 year penalty to gag media P Guramatunhu

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because decades of bad governance. One of the most common manifestation of bad governance is bad policies.

This monolithic de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship does not tolerate dissent and so has stifled all meaningful debate and so policies are proposed and implemented without much debate or scrutiny. Little wonder they are, more often than not, half-baked and have caused much suffering, indigestion or worse.

Take this 21-day nationwide lockdown, starting today 30 March 2020; there could not have been any serious debate on the matter. Using government’s own figure there are seven confirmed cases of corona virus and one death in the country. Surely government should have traced all those the seven were in touch with and ordered them into self-isolation and not place the whole nation of 16 million under lockdown.

There are a host of other measures Zimbabwe should be pursuing such as making sure everyone, especially in all hospitals and urban centres, has access to clean running water; step up the testing (only 16 tests were carried out as of 20 March 20202); make sure there is enough personal protective equipment for all corona virus frontline workers; etc.

Many people believe there a lot more people in Zimbabwe infected by the corona virus than the small number admitted by the regime; enough to justify a nation-wide lockdown. Even then, government must step up the testing, supply of clean water, etc. The lockdown will, at best, slow down the spread of the virus and, unless it is stamped out, the virus will start spreading again the as soon as the lockdown is lifted.

Of course, it is disheartening that hardships and sacrifices the people will endure during the 21-day lockdown will not stop the spread of the virus, all because the lockdown was yet another one of this government ill-advised policies.

Worse still, it now emerges that government has passed a law whose import is foster its current position of doing few tests and the number of confirmed corona virus cases very low. Anyone reporting of any corona virus cases higher than the official figure will be punished!

"For the avoidance of doubt any person who publishes or communicates false news about any public officer involved with enforcing or implementing the national lockdown in his or her capacity as such, or about any private individual that has the effect of prejudicing the State's enforcement of the national lockdown, shall be liable for prosecution under section 31 of the Criminal Law Code and liable to the penalty there provided, that is to say a fine up to or exceeding level 14 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 20 years or both," states Statutory Instrument 83 of the 2020 Public Health, COVID-19 Prevention, Containment, Treatment and Lockdown Order.

Zimbabwe’s 21-day lockdown is a copycat of China’s Wuhan lockdown in two ways:

1)   This Zanu PF regime is obsessed about portray itself as a competent government serious of the corona virus outbreak and retain its competence image, even at the price of the virus spreading. The Chinese Communist Party suppress the news of the corona virus for nearly a month, for the same egotistic reasons. To date, China has 82 198 reported corona virus cases and 3 186 deaths; many people believe the true figures are much higher. Zanu PF will rigorously apply SI 83 of 2020 to make sure corona virus figures are kept as low as possible.

2)   Imposing a total lockdown and ruthlessly enforcing it comes naturally to President Xi Jinping of China as it does to President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe.  

The difference between Zimbabwe and China is one is a pauper state whilst the other is a super-power. China was able to stamp out corona virus because it was not only able to coerce the populous obey the lockdown but, most important of all, had the human and economic resources to stamp out the virus.

40 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical rule has reduced Zimbabwe into an impoverished Banana Republic. The country’s economy is in total meltdown and key basic services such as health care have all but collapsed.

Indeed, the decision to impose the lockdown instead of rebuilding the health service was because, being a Police State, the security services is comparatively better resourced than the health care service. We need nurses and doctors to stamp out corona virus not AK47 wielding soldiers with orders to shoot to kill!

Corona virus has the potential of cause as much economic suffering as the 1930s Great Depression and claim many human lives. For countries like Zimbabwe whose economy was already in ruins before the corona virus outbreak, the per capita human lives will be that much greater!

In short, much of the human suffering and deaths toll in Zimbabwe will be a result of bad governance. Understating the seriousness of the virus outbreak, for example, will delay its eradication by as much as a month.

The people of Zimbabwe have done nothing to end the country’s curse of rigged elections, the root cause of the bad governance, for the last 40 years now. The nation has paid dearly for this folly but economic and social cost has soared with the advent of corona virus.

The need to end the curse of rigged elections should be the number one issue on the national agenda, even with the corona virus grabbing all the headlines because if the country had a good and competent government it will implement sound policies designed to stamp out the virus and not waste time on such foolishness as this 21-day lockdown.