Mnangagwa was confident
his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call would open the flood gate of
investors and lenders and kick-start the country’s economy. The economy had
stalled following decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank
lawlessness which had forced investors to shied away from doing business in
Zimbabwe.
Investors are a
shrewd lot, they were not fooled by the musical chairs game of the November
2017 coup, they knew it was not enough to transform the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu
PF party into democratic party. By blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections
Mnangagwa confirmed beyond doubt that Zimbabwe was indeed still a pariah state,
just as it was during Mugabe’s days.
The failure to revive
the economy is the one thing that has irked Mnangagwa. The growing army of
vendors eking a living sell all manner of trinkets and rubbish was a daily
reminder of his failure.
"Whilst almost
all sectors of the economy have opened up without much restrictions, the
informal sector in yesterday's announcement was said to begin a phased
reopening. Considering the number of our membership and indeed those reliant on
vending in general, there is no specific mention of when we can safely begin
the reconstruction of our livelihoods," Vendors Initiative for Social and
Economic Transformation (VISET) said.
"We urge the
authorities to look into this issue with the urgency it requires. Of further
concern is that this indefinite extension further impacts upon the construction
and completion of new vending sites as we fear this maybe used as an excuse to
keep vendors from plying their trade and providing for their families."
There is no denying
that Zimbabwe’s level 2 lockdown is designed to keep the vendors off the
streets. This is not the first time Zanu PF has tried to hide the poor and
destitute in society.
Remember the rounding
up of the prostitutes and sending them to the farms, “minda mirefu”, before the
Commonwealth Heads of State and Government meeting in 1991. Ever since the
regime has conducted several Operation Murambatsvina (Remove dirty) to destroy
the shanty dwellings and selling stalls used by the poor and vendors. The regime
has used the lockdown as the cover to destroy the vendors’ stall and force them
off the streets.
The regime promised
to provide food to the needy during the lockdown but has failed to do so.
Frankly, everyone knew this was just another empty promise by regime.
With unemployment
now a nauseating 90% the vendors are now more than just an embarrassment to this
Zanu PF government, they are a serious threat to regime’s continued iron grip
on power. The poor have not only grown into a multitude but worse still their
economic condition has become intolerable. The fear of the people’s bottled
anger bursting into a tsunami is real.
No one should ever be
denied a livelihood and a chance to live. Especially when those denying vendors
a livelihood are the ones whose misrule has left millions of our people with no
other choice other than eke a living as a vendor.
But such is the
sickening triple jeopardy of being poor in a pariah state; the tyrants deny you
a meaningful say in the governance of the country, rob you blind and, to add
insult to injury, blame you for being poor. They are so ashamed of you, they
want you died!
18 comments:
Zanu PF is a ruthless dictatorship that cherishes absolute power and shun democratic accountability it is therefore no surprise that the party would seek to use the covid-19 outbreak to increase its tyrannical powers and to undermine the democratic rights of political opponents and critics.
With unemployment a nauseating 90% and the majority of them forced to become a vendor, the vendors therefore constitute a very large constituency. Zanu PF knows that the vendors some of the poorest of the poor and very therefore good reason to be angry with the regime. Fortunately, for Zanu PF the vendors are a helpless sleeping giant who do not even know their own political power and so are being kicked around like a football.
I agree, the vendors have been stripped of their democratic right to a meaningful vote, they are poor because the ruling elite have rob them blind and to rub it in the ruling elite are blaming the vendors for being poor – when it is the ruling elite whose insatiable greed for power and wealth that caused it all.
Nothing would please Mnangagwa and his cronies more than the vendors to stay put in the hovels and die of hunger and/or covid-19. The regime would be even happier is no one even notice and the regime, for its part, will go to great lengths to ensure the world will never know the vendors ever existed. Yes, the ruling elite want the poor DIED!
South Africa does not meet the World Health Organisation (WHO standards to move from the current Level 4 to Level 3, the country's Health Minister Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize has said.
Speaking during a briefing with health experts on Tuesday night Mkhize is reported to have said, "The WHO has said that we need to start showing that the numbers are declining, and infections are not increasing. We are nowhere near that."
South has of today registered 17,200 Coronavirus cases with 312 deaths.
If Zimbabwe had been testing and tracking as aggressively as SA then our covid-19 cases will be a lot more than 46. As it is the lockdown is level 2 and the virus is spreading far and wide. Fortunately, so far the weather has been hot and the virus is not so contagious. We are now moving into cold weather and the virus will be more contagious. It is then that the country will realise the folly of having believing it had contained the virus when it had not done so.
ZIMBABWEAN returnee from South Africa, Nomathemba Ndlovu (31), who died on Sunday night at Mkoba Teachers College quarantine centre in Gweru, was chronically ill and still awaiting COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results, Midlands Provincial Affairs minister Larry Mavhima said yesterday.
Mavhima, however, said the Zhombe woman’s rapid diagnostic test results came back negative.
It is one thing to say Midlands has no confirmed case of covid-19 if you have been testing aggressive; it means nothing otherwise. Zimbabwe has not been testing aggressively and the Midlands Province is one of the worst performers when it comes to testing.
The Israeli News newspaper, Jerusalem Post reports that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has called on his army to prepare for combat over Ethiopia’s plans to start filling its hydropower Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in the rainy season.
The President ordered the armed forces to be on the “highest state of alert.” In response, Ethiopia reportedly deployed anti-aircraft missiles in the vicinity of the Renaissance Dam.
Formerly known as the Millennium Dam, GERD is a gravity dam on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia that has been under construction since 2011. At 6.45 gigawatts, the dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed, as well as the seventh largest in the world. And as of October 2019, the works on the dam stood at approximately 70% completion. Once completed, the Dam’s reservoir could take from 5 to 15 years to fill with water, depending on hydrologic conditions, and, even more important: depending on the reactions of the countries most likely to be affected: Egypt and Sudan.
This is a nightmare that neither of the three countries ever wanted!
Political analyst and Constitutional lawyer Shepherd Dube says the military faction in ZANU PF is set to fire any vocal civilian politician in pursuit of the total takeover of the party before firing President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Dube made the statements alleging that the military faction, known as Cosleg, is behind the firing former Deputy Government Spokesperson Energy Mutodi.
Said Dube, "The military faction in ZANU PF is very powerful. It plays touch is a move. Lewis Matutu opened his mouth and was expelled very fast. Energy Mutodi has followed suit. Many will follow, the last 'Civilian' to be fired will be Emmerson Mnangagwa."
Mutodi was fired after he insulted Minister of Foreign Affairs General Sibusiso Moyo calling him a Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
When Mnangagwa and his cronies staged the military coup in November 2017, they were cocksure they would revive the nation’s economy. Two and half years later the country is in even worse economic state. Mnangagwa promised to end corruption and to hold free, fair and credible elections; he has failed on both fronts.
Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. No one wants to do business is a pariah state.
Zanu PF has held the nation to ransom for the last 40 years dragging the whole nation into abject poverty and despair. These Zanu PF thugs have failed but will not admit it and, worst of all, will not allow the nation to break away and chart a democratic route out of this hell.
The nation had its best chance ever to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, sadly that chance was wasted. What the people of Zimbabwe must do now is make it abandonly clear to these Zanu PF thugs that the nation wants change and will not compromise on that.
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the regime has no mandate to govern and must step down. Like it or not, it will step down!
52 Days into the lockdown, and the Ministry of Health and Child-Care reported that as at 20 May 2020, cumulatively a total of 18 244 rapid screening tests and 14 618 PCR diagnostic tests had been conducted. The total number of positive cases has risen to 48. This comes after 2 female returnees tested positive today.
The great majority of Zimbabwe’s confirmed covid-19 cases are returnees. Government has confirmed that most returnees are screened using the RDT on arrival and then again after 21 days. This test will not pick up someone who has just been infected in the last 7 days and yet the individual can still pass the virus to others.
The living conditions in these quarantine centres where returnees have to share toilet and washing facilities with 20 or more others make these centres covid-19 hotspots. By the end of the 21 days quarantine it is almost certain the infected individuals would have passed the virus to one or more others!
The number of returnee are increasing everyday if the government is testing on arrival and then test again at the end of the quarantine then, given the small number of tests, it cannot be doing much testing and tracking on the rest of the population, especially the target groups.
There are a hell lot more than 48 covid-19 cases in Zimbabwe and the nation will pay dearly for doing nothing to contain the virus!
COVID-19 cases continue to rise with two more cases reported Wednesday by the Ministry of Health to bring the total to 48.
“As at 20 May 2020, Zimbabwe had 48 confirmed cases, including 18 recoveries and four deaths,” the Health Ministry said in Covid-19 daily update.
“Two cases tested positive for Covid-19 today (Wednesday). The cases are female returnees, one from Botswana and one from South Africa. Both tested positive on the 8th day of quarantine.”
However, the new reported cases do not include nine Malawians who tested positive for coronavirus in Beitbridge Wednesday after crossing into the country from South Africa.
If the two tested positive on the 8th day of quarantine, does this mean people are not tested on arrival?
Why are the 9 Malawians who have tested positive not included in the national total, especially since they are in isolation in Zimbabwe?
So, the 2 new cases, 1 in Masvingo and 1 in Midlands, does not include the 31-year old woman who died at Mkoba Teachers’ College otherwise the number of deaths would be 5.
Zanu PF is handling the covid-19 pandemic is the same way it handles nation elections – lacks transparency, cannot trace or verify anything and everything is as clear as mud, deliberately so too! Sadly, corona virus is taking full advantage of the chaos and confusion to spread far and wide. And this will become apparent as the nation goes into the cold season, the flu season.
THERE was drama in the High Court of Zimbabwe last night when MDC Alliance lawyer Tendai Biti froze after being shown the MDC Alliance agreement by Justice Tawanda Chitapi, moments after he had counter-argued that the MDC Alliance was a party and not an umbrella of several parties.
The document, which was signed by the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, showed that the parties to the electoral pact would remain independent and separate, which the MDC-T argues means it has the power to recall MPs who were sponsored in the Alliance line-up by the MDC-T.
This was just a frivolous case from the word go. The 30 March Supreme Court judgement gave power to Madam Khupe and the power to recall of the four MDC A leaders was derived from that judgement. The case before the High Court completely ignored the Supreme Court judgement as if it was never made!
The real tragedy here is that whilst these MDC village idiots are busy fighting amongst themselves over trivial matters, there is no one paying attention to Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence at a time the country is facing its greatest existential threat of our generation. No one!
Said Moyo:
While we have been able to control local transmission, we are worried about the number of people who are getting into towns because there is a possibility of a second wave of transmissions.
If the country has only 48 cases then it did not have even a first outbreak. How then can it be fearing a second outbreak?
By failing to test aggressively the country has no clue the virus is spreading far and wide. By down playing the seriousness of the spread of the virus the regime has given the people a false sense of security.
There is absolutely no sense a nation of 16 million should be in lockdown when the number of covid-19 cases are 48 and have gone up by 20 in the last four week and the overwhelming majority of the 20 are returnees and local infections! We all know that the regime has not been testing and so it has no clue what is going on out there. No doubt it is accusing people of not staying at home just as an excuse when the numbers of cases start to soar!
There are three confirmed covid-19 cases in the Midlands and all three are returnees tested on 8th day. The hygienic condition at these quarantine centres have been flagged as a serious matter turning these centres into covid-19 hotspots in their own right. The authority must do something about reducing the risk of the virus spreading in these centres because it defeats the whole purpose of the quarantine!
The one Harare resident with no history of travel shows the virus is already spreading in the country. Where did this individual get the virus from? Who else has he/she passed the virus to?
Again we urge the government to ramp up its testing and tracking! These test kits cost US$6 and US$20 for the RDT and PCR kit respectively there is no excuse why the country has not sourced more test kits and doing more tests.
The sheer incompetence with which this government is handling this pandemic in going to make this tragic situation even worse than it is! Hundreds of thousands of lives are going to be lost unnecessarily!
In an exclusive interview with ZimEye, the returnees said it was not logical for government to quarantine citizens returning from different countries including Botswana, South Africa and Namibia but fail to test them.
Said the returnees:
“We are told that there are no test kits and the other officials do not give us a satisfactory answer saying they are not in a position to comment.”
The returnees also said the sanitary facilities at the Harare Polytechnic College were deplorable.
This is a nightmare! How can this be a quarantine centre when it does not even have clean running water! How much would it have costed to install a water tank so there is running water 24/7?
It would not take much to keep the different groups apart and to clean the place clean. The officials can supply the cleaning materials and the returnees can organise themselves to do the rest.
The returnees have spoken of people being tested for covid-19 at the border and some people being taken away – clearly because they are covid-19 positive. The official line is the individual was sick. The lady reportedly taken off the group from Namibia said she has heart problems. Heart problem, my foot!
The other day 6 Zimbabwean truck drivers were tested in Zambia and pronounced covid-19 positive. They were sent back to Zimbabwe and tested again – only one driver was reported as covid-19 positive.
There is no doubt that the Zimbabwe government is under-reporting covid-19 cases in the country. The nation is being deceived into believing there are very few covid-19 cases out there and so people are not as diligent and cautious as they would otherwise be if they knew the virus is there. This complacency is only helping the virus spread far and wide.
As the nation moves into the cold winter, the flu season, covid-19 infections will start to soar. Only then will it become obvious the virus had spread far and wide.
I totally agree with the returnees; if government cannot provide hygienic conditions to stop quarantine centres becoming covid-19 hotspots then it is criminal to force people to stay in a dangerous environment! One returnee died at Mkoba Teachers’ College, the authorities will no doubt attribute her death to malaria or some such disease, not covid-19. We will no doubt have a lot more malaria, heart failure, etc. cases in these quarantine centres!
Zimbabwe Independent reported on Friday that government is fast running out of test kits and protective clothing, resulting in a huge backlog of thousands of untested laboratory samples countrywide.
The paper quoted sources who said, "What this means is that all these people are freely roaming the streets and, in the event that some of them are infected, they could be spreading the virus. Remember that as of now, the country is only testing those who develop symptoms similar to Covid-19 who want to know their status. There is very little proactive testing going on.
"There is no reagent now in the country as we speak and the situation is really scary especially if you look at it in the context of the decision by government to significantly ease the lockdown even without having first satisfied the minimum requirements as stipulated by the World Health Organisation. The effects are likely to be felt in two or so weeks."
Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence has been evident ever since the pandemic outbreak as shown by the shocking and downright criminal mishandle of the late Zororo Makamba, the country’s first reported covid-19 case. One area the regime is definitely guilty of criminal negligence is not only did the regime fail to test aggressively but it has deliberately deceived the nation by underreporting the covid-19 cases even those the who had been tested!
Let me say it here, I said it before and will repeat it again and again, Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence is going to make this tragic covid-19 pandemic even worse than it is. Zanu PF’s deception is helping the virus spread far and wide and so hundreds of thousands more people are going to suffer and die unnecessarily. The sooner Zanu PF steps down the more lives that will be saved!
In the case of Zimbabwe it is clear that the country has been under reporting the covid-19 outbreak by deliberately not testing aggressively and missing out even known cases. The 51 confirmed cases, 29 active and 4 deaths is but the ears of the hippo whilst the rest of the beast remain concealed in the muddy water.
Zimbabwe government has since admitted it is running out of covid-19 test kits! In February/March the regime was splashing $36 million sprucing up the National Stadium and other stadiums and completely ignored the advice for the regime to focus on the pandemic.
Then there is the thorny issue of the wholesale looting of the country's resources. Donors have been completely cheesed off by the country's failure to stamp out corruption. Why should they be expected to bankroll Zimbabwe's fight to contain covid-19 when the nation is wasting millions of dollars every month to the looters, especially these days when there are many more deserving their help.
Southern Africa is moving into the flu season, winter, and covid-19 will spread like a forest fire.
Zimbabwe is going to pay dearly for retaining this corrupt, incompetent and illegitimate Zanu PF dictatorship throughout these difficult covid-19 times and beyond! The need for the country to have a competent government has never been more urgent than it is right now!
Zimbabwe's confirmed covid-19 cases are very low but only because the government has not been testing and tracking aggressively and, to make matters worse, has been under reporting even the know cases. Last week, Zambia reported 6 Zimbabwean truck drivers had tested positive to covid-19. The drivers were deported back to Zimbabwe and the authorities have reported of one driver testing positive.
The people of Zimbabwe have lived the lie that covid-19 was not as serious a threat to them because only a tiny number of people had the virus not knowing the number was a lot bigger than the government would let on! And so the virus has been spreading far and wide. The coming cold weather, normally the flu season, will show just how widely spread the corona virus is in the country!
Zimbabwe's confirmed covid-19 cases are very low but only because the government has not been testing and tracking aggressively and, to make matters worse, has been under reporting even the known cases. Last week, Zambia reported 6 Zimbabwean truck drivers had tested positive to covid-19. The drivers were deported back to Zimbabwe and the authorities have reported of one driver testing positive.
The people of Zimbabwe have lived the lie that covid-19 was not as serious a threat to them because only a tiny number of people had the virus not knowing the number was a lot bigger than the government would let on! And so the virus has been spreading far and wide. The coming cold weather, normally the flu season, will show just how widely spread the corona virus is in the country!
We are in serious, serious trouble!
There are now 56 confirmed covid-19 cases in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s corona virus decisions have been guess-work because the country was not testing and tracking as aggressively as it should have done. Now the minister of health says the country has run out of test kits – a convenient smoke-screen behind which the regime can now hide the true story of covid-19. With no test kits there will be no covid-19 confirmed cases or deaths! The tragedy is there will be many covid-19 cases and many deaths it is just that they will not be recorded as covid-19 and thus giving the country and the regime a good name!
It was bad enough to have had this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime all these last 40 years but to have the same blundering regime at a challenging time like this covid-19 pandemic is the stuff of nightmares! The nation has paid dearly for having a Zanu PF dictatorship these last 40 years in over 30 000 murdered for selfish political gain and in lost treasure; going forward the economic cost will go up but so too will the lost human lives!
Hundreds of thousands are going to lose their lives because of Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence in the handling of this corona virus pandemic! Already many donors have loathed give Zimbabwe help in the fight against covud-19 because the country has done nothing to stamp out the wholesale looting going on in Marange and Chiadzwa. Why should they help a country that is so wasteful when there are many other deserving cases who need help!
The first Covid-19 case in Masvingo, a Rujeko woman travelled from Botswana in the company of her daughter who had two children and the four were staying in the same room at Masvingo Teachers` College quarantine centre it has emerged.
The details has raised fears among returnees at the centre who told The Mirror that they use the same dining hall, toilets and bathing rooms with the family exposing themselves to the deadly virus.
Addressing a press briefing today at Benjamin Burombo building Masvingo Provincial Medical Director Dr Amadeus Shamhu said the woman who is isolated at her Rujeko home, travelled from Botswana with her daughter and two grandchildren who are still at Masvingo Teachers` College.
Asking the returnees to share the same toilet, washing facilities and, in many cases without clean running water, has turned these quarantine centres into covid-19 hotspots. Now that the government is running out of test kits, the situation of the returnees is really becoming intolerable because they will be forced to stay at the centres for longer than the agreed time whilst they wait for the covid-19 test results to come out. They longer one stays in such a covid-19 hotspot the great the chance of one getting the virus!
Contacted for comment, Information Ministry secretary Nick Mangwana confirmed the disturbances took place but said some returnees had opted to pay the US$65 for testing at private medical facilities after the isolation centre faced shortages of Covid-19 test kits.
“The long and short of it is that the alleged mishap at Belvedere (Teachers’ College) took place when the returnees who were in a hurry and could not wait for the testing kits were offered an opportunity to access the service elsewhere,” he said.
“But this happened for a short while and as I am speaking everything has been sorted out and testing is being undertaken at no cost in line with the government’s position.”
The government is running out of test kits and it is just a matter of time before these returnees and thrown to the vultures. According to Strive Masiyiwa tests kits cost US$ 6 to US$20 each and so our profiteering gig is 3 to 10 times as much. Given this is one of the most corrupt regime on earth, it will come as no surprise to hear donated test kits are being sold at extortionist prices.
Worse still, that people are forced to pay the extortionist price for a con test!
Having a corrupt and incompetent government is making this pandemic even worse than it is!
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