Did you see the video
clip of President Cyril Ramaphosa struggling to put on the face mask? Boy oh
boy, instead of covering his mouth and nose he kept covering his eyes. What a palava!
“I am going to open a TV
channel where I will teach people how to put on a mask,” chuckled President
Ramaphosa, the following day. “You can enrol.”
“Kudos to our
president,” said one Twitter post. “At least he’s got a sense of humour.”
Oh! How I wish President
Cyril Ramaphosa had opened the TV channel and was never elected President of
the Republic of South Africa! We can all laugh about Ramaphosa’s failure to put
on the face mask but none of us are laughing about his blundering incompetence as
president, especially in the handling of the corona virus pandemic.
Countries such as South
Korea and Germany have heeded World Health Organisation’s advice to aggressive
test, track, isolate and treat corona virus cases. They have managed to contain
the spread of the virus. SA, like all the other African countries without
exception, was slow off the mark, allowed the virus to take root and now it is
spreading like wildfire.
President Ramaphosa imposed
SA’s nationwide lockdown far too early, without careful consideration on its
effectiveness in high density suburbs and worst of all with no resources lined
up to feed the most vulnerable. He is already easing the lockdown when pandemic
is set to get worse with the arrival of winter.
I am disappointed in President
Ramaphosa’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the corona virus threat
but was not altogether surprised. Like every other thinking Zimbabwean out
there, I was very disappointed when President Ramaphosa said Zimbabwe’s July
2018 elections “went well”! When Mnangagwa had blatantly rigged the elections
and all the democratic nations had said so.
And to add insult to
injury, President Ramaphosa has stubbornly refused to accept that Zimbabwe’s
economic meltdown was caused by the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption
and, instead, blames it on targeted sanctions imposed on a few Zanu PF leaders.
How can anyone be that dumb, especially one in the position of power and
authority!
Like it
or not President Ramaphosa’s failure to put on the face mask was symptomatic of
his blundering incompetence in the handling of the corona virus and many other
big national issues. The consequence of his failure to contain the corona virus
is the virus spreading far and wide and wrecking economic, social and
humanitarian havoc of Biblical proportion. That is no laughing matter!
At least
President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected by the majority of South Africans in a
free, fair and credible election. They, if they so decide, can remove him from
office.
The
people of Zimbabwe are too facing the consequences of Mnangagwa’s blundering
incompetence in the handling of the corona virus. The situation in Zimbabwe is
going to be a lot worse than SA given Zimbabwe’s economic was in total meltdown
and health service had all but completely collapsed before the pandemic.
Emmerson
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs blatantly rigged the 2018 elections to impose
themselves on the nation! The regime has no democratic mandate to rule, it is
illegitimate. We are stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship and have been for the
last 40 years!
5 comments:
25/4/2020 380 tests 3 positive 2 local infections giving a new total of 31 confirmed positives
380 tests when we should have done 1 000 tests! This is just not good enough. The decision to ease the lockdown conditions will be made on the basis of ignorance - a dangerous thing to do considering covid-19 is not Morgan Tsvangirai or Nelson Chamisa who can be cheated and Zanu PF will just get away with it as usual!
Zimbabwe has not done anything to contain the corona virus to give the nation any reason to believe we are containing the virus much less stamped it out.
What is clear is that the virus is not as contagious in warm weather but that is all about to change as we move into the cold May, June and July. The window of opportunity should have been used to do tests!
Zimbabwe was very slow in the test, track, isolate and treat routine. The country has just received 50 000 test kits and we were promised the number of tests will be ramped up to 1 000 per day as of Monday 20 April 2020. And yet here we are, we cannot even do half that still!
Data released by the government showed that total tests conducted from March 20 to April 24 were 5 687, yet a physical count of the tests reported daily only adds up to 5 583. There are at least 104 tests that cannot be explained.
On Friday, a Mashonaland East tally by the Health and Child Care ministry showed that four people had recovered from the disease, but national figures released in the early hours of yesterday said only two people had recuperated.
"We said we will do 40 000 tests and surely, we cannot be manipulating numbers by 104, we could have said we tested 10 000 if there was any interest in doing that," Mangwana said.
"There is no case to be made here, but I will refer you to the Ministry of Health for the technical explanation, but government is determined to be transparent."
This is a corrupt and incompetent regime and has already made numerous blunders in the handling of the corona virus. The regime is desperate to portray an image of a competent government and is given to boasting about its performance only to be contradicted by the reality on the ground. The regime is notorious for giving false information in an attempt to distort reality to march with the imaginary portrait.
The regime is desperate to portray the image of a regime that has the corona virus under control to justify the easing of the lockdown condition post 3 May 2020. It is achieving this objective by carrying out fewer tests, 380 tests yesterday instead of 1 000, by claiming to have carried out x tests but only declare the results of x – y, by failing to test those target groups such as those reported with malaria although government had promised to test them, etc., etc.
Mnangagwa “determined to be transparent!” Sure as he was transparent in the rigged July 2018 elections!
The lockdown was imposed because other nations like China and Europe had done the same!
China imposed a total lockdown in the city of Wuhan when it was clear the city was the epicentre of corona virus and just to be extra safe the lockdown was extended to include the province Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, plus two other adjoining provinces. Zimbabwe imposed a nationwide lockdown with 5 or so confirmed corona virus cases!
There is no point in imposing a total lockdown when it is near impossible to maintaining the isolation and/or physical distancing. In high density suburbs five or more people share a two roomed house, people have to queue for water, share toilets, etc.
There are many things government should have instituted such as installing stalls for vendors where physical distancing can be exercised, ensuring there was clean running water for people to wash regularly, etc.
Zanu PF has handled the corona virus threat with the regime’s usual blundering incompetence; there is a heavy price to be paid for this!
In an interview, Midlands Provincial Medical Director Dr Reginald Mhene said there was a low turnout by frontline workers for Covid-19 testing.
"The challenge we have as a province is that there is a low turnout of frontline workers who are being tested.
"We recently received 200 test kits from Government so that we do rapid tests of suspected cases as well as frontline workers.
"The challenge is the workers are reluctant to get tested in some instances we would test three people a day.
If the country is supposed to do 1 000 tests a day, that is 100 test per day for each of the 10 provinces then 200 test kits would only last two days!
Midlands Province needs a new and competent Medical Director who understands the seriousness of covid-19 and the importance of testing as the key to containing the spread of the virus. If he cannot explain the importance of the test to his staff, then there is a crying need for someone who will. To be testing 3 when you should be testing 100 is just inexcusable! Why has the government not fired this idiot?
The trouble with having a corrupt and incompetent government is that your pay for it during the good times in terms of lost opportunities and pay even more during the bad times as their incompetence invariably make the bad times even worse.
Post a Comment