“Writing on his popular Facebook blog following his appointment by the African Union as a Special Envoy to Coordinate the Africa Private Sector Initiative for the Procurement of Personal Protective Equipment and other Essential Supplies, Masiyiwa says the key to stopping the disease in its tracks is to adopt the formula #ITTIT; inform, test, trace, isolate and treatment as a collaborative effort among the private sector, NGOs, businesses and faith-based organizations,” reported Bulawayo 24.
What is the point of talking about testing, tracing, etc. when we all know that those in positions of power and authority to do these things and not doing anything about it. Zimbabwe has 42 confirmed cases but only because the country has not been testing aggressively and, when it has been testing it is the wrong people.
Two weeks ago government gave a directive that workers must be tested before they are allowed to go back to work and so the limited test kits, human resources and time are been being wasted testing workers instead of who are suspected to have covid-19.
One of the simplest and cheapest to implement WHO advice is: “Wash your hands thoroughly and often!” And yet we all know many African countries have done very little to make sure the people have clean running water. In Zimbabwe most cities, towns including hospitals and clinic do not have running water. The situation is even worse in rural areas!
One of the reasons why Africa has bad governance is that civic society, NGOs and private sector have all shied away from holding those in position of power and authority to account. They have stepped in to assist the victims of bad governance as if to say the ruling elite can continue their victims are being taken care of.
If Masiyiwa and his team of private sector and NGOs going to aggressively test, track and, most important of all, make test result public, for example. So far, only government officials are allowed to release information on covid-19 confirmed cases, deaths, etc. The regime has already passed a law with a 20-year jail term for reporting on anything other than the government censored data.
Besides African government have very deep pockets from the nation’s budgetary allocation and from donors. Last week the Zimbabwe government received US$ 7 million from the WB to help fight covid-19 and AfDB has just approved a US$13.7 million grant for the same purpose. Whatever Masiyiwa and his friends can raise in cash, material and human resources government’s contribution in kind will be significant.
My greatest concern with this initiative is that it is not doing enough to hold the errant governments like our own to account. Government has vast national plus donated resources in cash, material and human resources, which if employed to the good of the nation will go a long way to alleviate the economic hardships and the health suffering and reduce the death toll.
We should therefore be demanding to know why our government has not been testing aggressively. There are certainly many more covid-19 cases than the 42 government has reported.
We should be demanding to know why 80% plus of our people will have no clean running water for a day or more in this day and age?
Covid-19 constitutes the greatest existential threat of our generation victory will be measured in terms of how well we mobilised all the resources available and made the most of everyone of them. Having corrupt, incompetent and wasteful government, the biggest and most influential player, is a luxury we can ill afford.
A corrupt, incompetent and wasteful government, in this covid-19 era, will cost hundreds if not thousands of human lives!
In Africa we have tolerated bad governance and it is no wonder the continent has always remained poor and destitute. It is naïve, day-dreaming, indeed insane, to believe we can keep our corrupt and wasteful leaders and still have a fighting chance against covid-19.
17 comments:
@ Fay Chung
I expected better from you madam!
"The most critical failure over the past 20 years has been the economic failure, caused by a combination of Esap and the US-imposed Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Revival Act (Zidera) on the one hand, and the populist and technically unsound responses of the government and of the opposition on the other hand. The rising and destructive corruption has exacerbated both the political and economic situations. It has also seriously affected social welfare," you say.
Why is it that ESAP and ZIDERA had no effect on the filthy rich ruling elite? Mugabe had all the cash to build his sprawling Blue Roof mansion, to bankroll his lavish lifestyle including 8 trips to Singapore for eye check-up at US$ 3 million per trip in 2012 alone, etc. Where did he and his cronies get the money for all these things when there was no money to invest on national projects such as power generation projects or invest in the upkeep of key institutions like hospitals and clinic.
Zimbabwe facing this devastating corona virus outbreak at a time when its economy is in total meltdown and health care services have all but collapsed?
Even if one was to give you the benefit of the doubt that ESAP and ZIDERA were the causes of the country’s economic failure, you still have to explain why Mugabe spend the billions of dollars on his Blue Roof mansion and other luxuries whilst hospitals were allowed to rot and decay?
The truth is Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown was caused by decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The money to build the Blue Roof mansion, pay for the overseas health care services, etc. was all creamed off from the nation and common good.
I expected village idiots like Victor Matemadanda to still blubber on and on about sanctions causing the economic collapse and not you, Fan Chung. I hope someone is going to declare that this was not the real Fay Chung but rather a senile Fay Chung – old age has caught up with you as it often does to us all!
Strive Masiyiwa is advising the nation to "inform, test, track, isolate and treat", the same advice WHO has given repeatedly ever since the corona virus outbreak. He knows that the Zimbabwe government has not been testing aggressively and readily acknowledge that only two African governments that have been testing and tracking aggressively are South Africa and Rwanda.
"Why are you not testing aggressively despite receiving covid-19 aid?" is the question every thinking Zimbabwean out there should be asking with increasing urgency and alarm.
The follow up question to people like Strive Masiyiwa and all those who still believe they have common sense is: Why are you not asking the government why it is not testing aggressively?
Masiyiwa's answer to that is clear enough, if Zanu PF is not testing aggressively let us mobilise private sectors and civic society to fight the corona virus and bypass government. This is not even a novel idea because it at the very heart of African head-in the sand political thinking that has kept stuck in this hell-hole of poverty and political instability.
Masiyiwa's idiotic solution will not stop the corona virus it is the responsibility of the government to mobilise resources and provide the leadership in the provision of such basic services as public health and fight against a common public enemy. Zanu PF is paranoid about power and will resist anything or anybody the regime will consider a threat to its iron grip on power. The regime is not testing aggressively because it does not want the truth about how its blundering incompetence is helping the virus spread.
Masiyiwa has been careful not to confront the regime on this point because doing so will open a Pandora's box of how Zanu PF has rigged elections and denies the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
What Masiyiwa is refusing to admit is that 40 years of pursuing this policy of appeasing Zanu PF thugs is what landed the nation in this economic and political mess. Of course, it is idiotic to believe the policy of appeasement will finally work this time and bring deliverance through this trial times of covid-19! Bollocks!
Zimbabwe have dearly for the foolishness of 40 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical government and it is insane to advocate that the same failed government can lead the nation through these difficult times of covid-19 and beyond. The pandemic has brought to the fore the critical importance of good governance we must bite the bullet and deal with this problem NOW!
Masiyiwa knows that this Zanu PF government has not been testing aggressively but will not want to confront the regime and demand that we test aggressively. He knows the regime is more interested in keeping its strangle hold on power and so does not want the nation to know that its blundering incompetence is helping to spread the virus.
What Masiyiwa is proposing is that we keep the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime in power and, somehow mobilise the private sector and civic society to fight the corona virus and leave government out of the fight. This is doomed to fail because Mnangagwa and his cronies are paranoid about power and they will certainly not want to be left out - they will want to lead or nothing will happen.
If we are serious about addressing the corona virus challenge then we must first address the problem of bad governance. Zanu PF must go! Masiyiwa wants to bury his head in the sand and pretend we can deal with covid-19 and still keep Zanu PF in office - a foolish notion that has not worked for the last 40 years and is not going to work now!
People have paid attention to what Strive Masiyiwa has said because “when you are rich, people think you really know!” as Tevye the Milkman put it so memorably in Fiddler on the Roof! He is certainly rich, a very successful business person and a billionaire. Sadly he certainly knows nothing, at least on the political front.
His proposal to stop corona virus by #ITTIT “as a collaborative effort among the private sector, NGOs, businesses and faith-based organizations” and leaving out Zanu PF as the party in government is a lead balloon that will never fly. Masiyiwa should know that you cannot held a village meeting without Zanu PF budging in or else the meeting will never take place!
If anyone is going to be seen as stopping corona virus it must be Zanu PF and no one else.
It is already clear that the Zanu PF regime has failed to stop the virus getting into the country and to stop it spreading. Whilst the regime has been quick off the mark to use the pandemic has a way to beg for financial assistance. The regime has also been careful not make sure information on the details of the corona virus in Zimbabwe is tightly controlled.
Officially, Zimbabwe has 42 confirmed cases of covid-19 and yet the government has already received millions of dollars to help fight the virus! This is clearly a delicate balancing act, the regime welcomes any financial assistance but would not risk it being known that it was incompetent in its handling of the outbreak.
The regime will never ever permit some political greenhorn expose the truth extend of the corona virus in Zimbabwe much less claim the credit for having “stopped the virus!” Zanu PF would much rather see the virus spread and hundreds of thousands die than allow that to happen!
Matemadanda is just an empty drum making a lot of noise. If Zanu PF respects the people then why has the party failed to hold free, fair and credible elections? The party has murdered over 30 000, 7 of them on 1st August 2018 for daring to protest another rigged election, innocent Zimbabweans in its iron resolve to retain power at all cost. Only an idiot like Matemadanda would not see the contradiction of respecting people and murdering them!
Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs determined to hang on to power at all cost. Those who believe Zanu PF will ever implement any democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections are naïve. The only hope of Zimbabwe ever getting out of this mess is for the nation to demand that Zanu PF steps down so the country can appoint an independent body to implement the democratic reforms.
A National Transition Authority in which Zanu PF has a role will never implement the reforms. Never!
While the circumstances pertaining to the whole case are not clear, my Ministry has directed the Commissioner General of Police to institute full scale investigations into the matter. I want to assure Zimbabweans that no stone will be left unturned with a view of finding out exactly what happened after the flash demonstration in Warren Park by MDC Alliance members.
The biggest mistakes Zimbabwe's corrupt and incompetent opposition parties made was to participate in the July 2018 elections and thus give the flawed election process some credibility. Now the nation is stuck with this vote rigging Zanu PF regime!
The people of Zimbabwe have buried their collective head in the sand and did not want to deal with the problem of bad governance. They have known their economic situation has got progressively worse and worse ever since the country attain her independence in 1980. Mugabe promised mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji”, as he called it but delivered mass poverty instead.
Zimbabwe used to grow enough food to feed her own people with plenty leftover to be the breadbasket of the region; that all changed in 2 000 when Mugabe started seizing the farms to give to his cronies, mostly. The agricultural production collapsed and took down with it the economy. For years Zimbabwe has depended on imported food-aid and unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90%. As of last year, 2019, 34% of the population lived “in extreme poverty” according to a WB report.
We live in the day and age when mankind has used his ingenuity to turn deserts into blooming fields and orchards. Zimbabwe is, for all practical purposes, the Biblical Garden of Eden. We are starving in the Garden of Eden – a damning testimonial to Zimbabwe’s failed leadership. And for our part, we the people have buried our collective head deeper in the sand and have done nothing to end the curse of bad governance. For 40 years and counting, we have done nothing to end the vote rigging, corruption and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Nothing!
The corona virus pandemic constitutes one the greatest existential threat the world has ever faced, comparable to the Second World War and the 1929 Great Depression. How Zimbabwe fares through this pandemic and the years of recovery to follow will depend on the quality of the nation’s leaders.
The idea Zimbabweans can continue to bury their collective head in the sand and ignore the serious problem of bad governance is foolish and dangerous. Of course, Masiyiwa knows the Zanu PF government is corrupt, incompetent and cannot be relied upon to stop the spread of the corona virus and hence the reason he has assigned it no role. The stopping of the virus will be a “collaborative effort” of private sector and civic society; government will have no part. What he has failed to say is how he would stop Zanu PF playing a role!
Zanu PF has already assigned itself as the only one authorised to report on the corona virus situation in the country. The regime has failed to stop the virus getting into the country and to spread because of its blundering incompetence. The regime has falsified the virus data to hide its failures and it is not going to allow someone else to embarrass the regime by telling the true story! Zanu PF will never allow the collaborative effort of private sector and civic society expose the regime’s blundering incompetence even at the risk of the virus spreading and killing hundreds of thousands of people!
In any case, it is the role of government to mobilise resources and provide the leadership in the fight against the public enemy, covid-19. Denying this Zanu PF regime a role is a tacit acknowledgement the regime is corrupt and incompetent and cannot be trusted to do anything right.
Instead of trying to limit what this incompetent Zanu PF government can and cannot do, we should replace it with a competent one and let it get on with the task of governing.
We have shied away from dealing with the problem of rigged elections and bad governance for 40 years and paid dearly for it. The price of bad governance during trial times such as these covid-19 time has sky-rocketed, every blunder will cost the usual silver and gold plus human lives; we must have a competent government that is democratically accountable to the people. Even if a collaborative effort of private sector and civic society was possible, it is but a poor substitute for a competent government!
Nobody anywhere believes in the corrupt and violent Zimbabwe government - not even its 'all weather friends' like China and South Africa, who will no longer lend it money. The Vigil suspects that Zanu PF supporters themselves only see the party as an avenue for self-advancement.
There are those who have said Zanu PF would implement the reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections one hope that they have finally been forced to admit the regime is beyond the pale. The only way the reforms will ever be implemented is for Zanu PF to step down to allow an independent body to be appointed and tasked to mimplement the reforms.
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and all the opposition parties and candidates who participated in these elections helped give the flawed and illegal process credibility. They did so out of greed, they were after the few gravy-train seats Zanu PF was goving away as bait. And now we are stuck with an illegitimate and tyrannical regime. Food for thought!
14 Malawians are on hunger strike demanding that they should be release from quarantine in Masvingo.
How much would it have costed Zimbabwe to escort them to Malawi then keep them quarantine? Masvingo Teachers College will have the same unhygienic conditions as in all the other quarantine centres in Zimbabwe, shared toilet and washing facilities or worse still no running water. What right does the Zimbabwe authority have of detaining someone when they cannot look after them!
If these figures are a true reflection of the reality on the ground then the continued lockdown does not make any sense! If there has been no covid-19 case in a province then why has the authorities not opened local schools and allowed economic activities within the province to resume. There is a huge price tag in lost economic production and lost learning opportunities with each day of the lockdown and therefore it is irresponsible to retain the lockdown for even one day longer than necessary.
I have never lost more than a week of classes in any given year throughout my school days. I can only imagine what it must be like for these students to losing a whole term. And, given the laissez- faire approach of this regime to education, the students will be lucky to go back to school!
The fear is the virus is spreading and the government is not testing aggressively to establish the truth. So the lockdown is just a shot in the dark! Why is the government not testing aggressively is a question that beggars belief! If the virus is not spreading then we should have lifted the lockdown, at least in those areas with no reported covid-19 cases. If the virus is spreading then why are we not tell people the truth so they can take the appropriate precautions!
This is very sound advice, but we all know that Zanu PF will ignore the advice as it has ignored equally sound advice from many other quarters in the past. WHO has been advising everyone to test aggressively but that advice has fallen on deaf Zanu PF ears.
If Mnangagwa had listened to his own voice and stamped out corruption, for example, as he had promised to then Zimbabwe will not be in this economic mess.
In 2016, Mugabe admitted the country was being “swindled out of US$15 billion in diamond revenue alone”! He never arrested even one swindler or recover one dollar. Mnangagwa said there would be “zero tolerance on corruption” after seizing power in the 2017 military coup and yet to this day he too is yet to arrest one diamond swindler or recover one dollar!
Masiyiwa is giving all this sound advice because he does not want to accept that the truth that Zanu PF is not just a corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging dictatorship but one beyond the pale. Even after 40 years of asking the regime to repent and being completely ignored, Masiyiwa is still believes Zanu PF is competent and listens.
“Insanity,” said the great Physicist, Albert Einstein, “is repeating the same thing over and over again and expect a different result!”
For 40 years Zanu PF has proven beyond all doubt that the party is led by corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants. Time and time again people like Masiyiwa have refused to accept that reality and allowed Zanu PF to rig elections and stay in power. Year after year the party has dragged the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth.
Today with the country is facing its greatest existential threat ever and instead of demanding that Zanu PF steps down, it is surely folly to have a corrupt and incompetent government at such a critical time, people like Masiyiwa wants to keep Zanu PF confident the regime will listen to his sound advice! Bollock!
Wicknell Chivayo's, the young man who was paid millions of dollars for Gwanda Solar Project only to deliver a security hut, ears have just pricked up like a hunting wild-dog!
This Zanu PF regime has failed to carryout one generation project in the last 40 years and hence the reason the country is facing this serious electrical power shortage. This is just another opportunity for the ruling elite to fleece the nation.
What the people of Zimbabwe should be focused on is getting Zanu PF to step down so the nation can implement the democratic reforms, the pre-requisite for free, fair and credible elections and good governance. Without securing good and accountable government this nation will continue to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss.
Until we secure a good and competent government there will be many more long overdue projects which the nation pay dearly for but only to get nothing!
Was the deceased SA returnee tested when she arrived at Mkoba Teachers College quarantine centre?
It has been said before and will be said again, Zimbabwe's quarantine centres where 5 or more people have to share toilet and washing facilities are covid-19 hotspots in their own right.
Has samples been taken for testing so everyone can be certain she was not one of the many unknown covid-19 cases out there because the country has not been testing aggressively!
Midlands is one of the provinces that has consistently failed to test for covid-19 aggressively. In its 16 May 2020 covid-19 Ministry of Health update, Midlands had carried out only 4 tests. If government was going to meet its target of 1 000 tests per day one would expect each of the 10 provinces to do 100 tests per day. It is therefore an outrage that any province should consistently post less than 10 tests per day.
The Director of Health in the Midlands and other provinces with pathetically low covid-19 test figures must be held to account for this serious dereliction of duty.
Zanu PF is the elephant in the room, responsible for the economic meltdown and political oppression in the country and yet many Zimbabweans will go to great lengths to talk about everything else and say nothing about the regime.
A few weeks ago Masiyiwa appealed to IMF and WB to give Zimbabwe and Sudan more financial assistance and suggest they appoint a third party to oversee the use of the aid. He acknowledged the IMF and WB's concern that the two regimes are corrupt and wasteful. Interestingly enough, Masiyiwa has never taken the Zanu PF regime to task on being wasteful much less demand the regime ends the wholesale looting in Marange and Chiadzwa!
Whatever IMF, WB and other international donors have given to Zimbabwe now and going forward it will be but a fraction of what they would have given the country if Zimbabwe stopped being so corrupt and wasteful! Zimbabweans like Strive Masiyiwa are not doing the nation any favours by burying their heads in the sand and pretending the nation can ever get anywhere without first dealing with the problem of bad governance!
Zimbabwe is not going to stop covid-19 by mobilizing private sector and civic society to bury their collective head and pretend not to see that Zanu PF's blundering incompetence is causing the virus to spread far and wide!
Bad governance is the number one problem Zimbabwe is facing and for the last 40 years the nation has pretended not to see it and have paid dearly for our folly. It is simply mad to allow the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF to remain in power during these very difficult times of covid-19! Of course, the regime will make a tragic situation even worse, guaranteed!
ZIMBABWE’S confirmed Covid-19 cases have risen to 46 as two more returnees, one who arrived from the United Kingdom and one truck driver from Zambia, tested positive to the virus.
“Both cases are stable and in self isolation in Harare,” reported the Health Ministry in its regular updates on the Covid-19 situation in the country.
Since the onset of the outbreak in March, Zimbabwe has recorded four deaths while 18 locals have since recovered, leaving active Covid-19 cases at 24 out of 28 019 cumulative total tests.
The way Zimbabwe is handling the covid-19 figures is both confusing and frustrating, to say the least! Zambia’s Minister of Health reported that 6 Zimbabwean truck drivers had tested positive to covid-19. Are these the 6 returnees from Zambia who are now being reported as just 1 cases?
Most of Zimbabwe’s confirmed cases are returnees which would suggest the virus is not spreading in the country. So why is the country still on lockdown?
Why is it that Matebeleland South had 558 tests on 17 May 2020 and yet other provinces like Masvingo do not seem to be doing any testing at all? The two provinces have had no confirmed covid-19 case and are hosting a number of returnees from SA and Botswana.
Zanu PF has perfected the art of being secretive, we all know how as transparent as a lump of coal Zimbabwe elections are. The price to be paid by being secretive about covid-19 is that this will only help spread the virus far and wide!
Masvingo Province which has all along depended on Harare for final and conclusive Covid-19 tests will in the next few days go independent following the introduction of GeneXpert Platform tests.
GeneXpert Platform is currently being used at the hospital to test for TB and has been modified to test for Covid -19.
Masvingo Provincial Medical Director Dr Amadeus Shamhu told The Mirror that GeneXpert is just as accurate and conclusive as the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) that is being used for Covid-19 tests in Harare and Bulawayo.
For a GeneXpert Platform to test for Covid-19 one needs to change the cartridge.
“We are waiting for cartridges from Harare which we expect anytime soon and thereafter we start conclusive tests for Covid-19 at the hospital,” said Dr Shamhu.
The GeneXpert Platform was widely deployed about a decade ago to rapidly detect tuberculosis, including multi drug resistant strains. It has since been adapted to enable rapid testing of not only HIV and hepatitis C but also influenza, Ebola and sexually transmitted diseases.
One of the reasons why covid-19 has been turned from a tragedy into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion is Zimbabwe’s failure to test and track aggressively.
The country received 50 000 test kits in mid-April 2020 and promised to ramp up testing to 1 000 per day, up from about 40 or so per day. The regime promised to do 30 000 by end of April. As of yesterday, 17 May the country had only done 28 019 tests. Masvingo is one of the provinces that has done very few tests, if at all.
People like Dr Shamhu must be held to account for the hundreds of thousands of covid-19 deaths all because the opportunity to contain the virus was lost because no one was testing and tracking the virus for months!
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