“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull!” said W C Fields
This Zanu PF government has mastered the art of baffling with bull to the t!
“Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Dr John Mangwiro yesterday dispelled assertions from some quarters that Government was understating the number of deaths from the deadly pandemic. He said such reports were false, mischievous and a clear attempt to cause alarm and despondency in the country,” reported The Herald.
"Government has got representation all over the country. Our health system is well organised from the minister, it goes to the deputy minister, permanent secretary and each town has got a representative and each province has a representative called a provincial medical director," said the Deputy Minister.
"Our systems are so well organised, well-oiled such that we collect data easily. We get accurate figures and information every time we need it.”
The official corona virus cases and deaths are only of those who would have been tested for the virus and the result was positive. And so one can keep the figures down by reducing the number of corona virus tests carried out!
In December 2020, at the onset of the current corona virus wave, SA (whose corona virus cases will be similar to ours given the heavy human traffic, legal and illegal, across our common border) was carrying out over 44 000 test per day. Zimbabwe, with 1/4 SA’s population, should have ramped up its tests to 11 000 per day but only doing 1 500 tests, 10%, on a really busy day! Well one easy way.
Dadaya High School had corona virus cases and the powers that be send out 47 test kits when everyone of 1 000 students and staff could have been infected and therefore should have been tested. The school closed and every one was went back to their homes without ever being tested.
The consequence of failing to test, trace and track is that infected individuals who, if tested and found to have the virus would be put into isolation, are allowed to mix with the rest, freely. And thus, they would, unknowingly, spread the virus far and wide.
The World Health Organisation recommended that all those showing corona virus symptoms must be tested of the virus; that is common sense. The question the Deputy Minister of Health should have answered is why has Zimbabwe with it’s “well organised and well-oiled” system failed to test even those clear cut cases common sense would dictate must be tested?
Instead of answering the pertinent question the Deputy Minister of Health is now trying to bamboozle the nation with details of the data collecting chain of command. If tests were not being carried out then there is no data to be collected and so the efficiency or otherwise of the latter is of no consequence!
There is no doubt that Zimbabwe’s REAL corona virus cases and deaths are far higher than the official figures and it is the real figures that affect real people.
Zimbabwe was in a serious economic and political mess before the corona virus outbreak after 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawless under this Zanu PF dictatorship. And so with its economy in total meltdown and its health care services in shambles everyone knew the country was going to be hit very hard by the corona virus.
Now, it turns out, Zanu PF’s obsession with hiding facts to hide the regime’s blundering incompetence has turned the corona virus tragedy into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion!
Whilst few nations, if any have been spared corona virus’s devastating economic, health and death blows; there is no denying (Zanu PF’s pathetic attempts to understate the effects must be dismissed with the contempt they deserve) Zimbabwe has been crashed! All because the country has a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical government and 40 years of misrule has left the nation economical and political weak and feeble!
If anything positive can ever be said to come out of the tragic human suffering and deaths brought on by corona virus; then it must be that the pandemic focused Zimbabweans to finally address the nation’s number one problem of bad governance.
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Minister Mthuli Ncube says Zimbabweans will pay for distribution of the vaccine!
If the government does not get the public to pay for the vaccine then the public will pay in many other ways such as getting the jab very late!
THE United Kingdom's minister for Africa James Duddridge has said British investors are "shunning" Zimbabwe due to a poorly managed currency, abuse of property rights and other legal concerns.
The comments were made a day after the UK government slapped four of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's allies with sanctions.
These are State Security minister Owen Ncube, Central Intelligence Organisation director-general Isaac Moyo, Zimbabwe Republic Police commissioner-general Godwin Matanga, and Presidential Guard former boss Anselem Sanyatwe.
Duddridge's statement comes at a time when Zimbabwe desperately needs fresh investment to resuscitate the ailing economy.
"Sanctions against individuals are a powerful tool for holding those responsible to account and to encourage governments to meet their international and domestic obligations. They do not deter investment into a country," he wrote in an opinion published in the South African press this week.
"UK investors repeatedly tell us that three key things prevent them from investing in Zimbabwe: concerns about the poorly managed currency; concerns about arbitrary property rights and concerns about the legal system. These areas can all be improved through genuine political and economic reform and with greater investment, the economy can be rebuilt for all Zimbabweans."
Duddridge said December 10, 2020 marked the 72nd anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose standards Zimbabwe made binding international commitments to adhere to.
The people of Zimbabwe we are own worst enemy! It is shocking that even 40 years since independence we are still failing to hold free, fair and credible elections.
We had the golden opportunity to end the dictators and for five years failing to implement even one reform. And ever since we have been participating in flawed and illegal elections giving legitimacy to the dictatorship.
Indeed the international community has been doing its best to put pressure of the Zanu PF regime to hold free and fair elections and it is none other than the country’s opposition who have been undermining their efforts by selling out. Are we really that stupid not to see what the opposition are doing!!!!
"There are six judges currently on quarantine. Four (names supplied) tested positive, while two have had their close family members test positive. Besides those, a number of staff members are also on Covid-19 quarantine and this has seriously affected work here," a source in the judiciary said.
"It's a crisis. Judges are coming on ad hoc basis, mainly for bail hearings but a lot of cases have been indefinitely postponed. What this implies that when normalcy returns, there will be a huge backlog of cases which will take a long time to clear.”
The government is already operating with skeletal staff - 10% - after four ministers died of Covid-19. Even President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his two deputies Kembo Mohadi and Constantino Chiwenga have working from home amid fears of going to their offices even during a time of emergency.
Despite having earlier promised to respond to The NewsHawks' inquiries, Judicial Service Commission head of communications and corporate affairs Rumbidzai Takawira later declined to comment on the matter, saying: "I am not allowed to speak on health issues; it's a bit of a tricky one.”
One of the first thing Zanu PF did after the outbreak of the corona virus was to pass law designed to stop the nation knowing the truth on the virus. Only government sources are to report on the virus and anyone else who did faced a 20 year jail term!
Every one knows that the official corona virus cases and deaths are lies. For a start, government has not been testing even those with corona virus symptoms! The authorities did not want to know the truth!
This nation has paid dearly for the government lies because a hell lot more people have ended up being infected and many have died! How long are we going to allow this madness to continue?
So there are 10 006 covid-19 cases 699 deaths in Harare alone!
Data reportedly released by The City Of Harare has revealed that one of Zimbabwe’s Northern suburbs Borrowdale is the suburb that was hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic as more people from the suburb tested positive for the virus.
This is not at all surprising because there have been more corona virus tests carried out in Harare and Bulawayo than other other provinces. It has been quite normal to have 10 or less tests per day carried out in most other provinces whilst hundreds of tests are carried out in Harare and Bulawayo. And within the large cities there would probably more tracing and tracking tests in the low density suburbs than in the high density one.
The willingness by Zimbabweans to accept the official corona virus cases shows how much we loath to hold our leaders to account. This is not the first time we have shown this loathing, we have shown it with elections too. There is not a single Zimbabwean with half a working brain who doesn't know that Zanu PF has been rigging elections and yet the overwhelming majority pretend not to notice!
South Africa will suspend use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot in its vaccination programme after data showed it gave minimal protection against mild to moderate infection caused by the country's dominant coronavirus variant.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday the government would await advice from scientists on how best to proceed, after disappointing results in a trial conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand.
The government had intended to roll the AstraZeneca shot out to healthcare workers soon, after receiving 1 million doses produced by the Serum Institute of India on Monday.
Instead, it will offer vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer in the coming weeks while experts consider how the AstraZeneca shot can be deployed.
It is great that SA has kept its technological expertise past the independence era unlike some country that has all but killed all sectors across the board.
THE High Court has ordered the government to widely disseminate comprehensive and adequate information on COVID-19 testing, isolation and treatment at public and private institutions.
This follows an urgent application filed by the Media Institute for Southern Africa (Misa) Zimbabwe, through its lawyer Rudo Magundani of Scanlen and Holderness, arguing that the information being disseminated was uninformative and inadequate.
High Court judge Justice Mary Dube also ruled that in addition, the Information and Publicity and Health and Child Care ministries should communicate COVID-19 statistics in relation to immigration and cross-border travel, adding that such reports should include the number of returning residents and their COVID-19 statuses.
Magundani had argued that the information being currently disseminated in the country was incomplete, uninformative, and inadequate.
Misa Zimbabwe contended that the information being disseminated currently failed to take into consideration the requirements of all Zimbabweans, and that its quality was poor and was short-changing the citizens on issues of the new strain of COVID-19.
What was the cost to the nation of having incomplete, uninformative and inadequate information on something as deadly as corona virus? How many Zimbabweans have been infected by the virus unnecessarily and many have died if only the Zanu PF regime had taken its duty and responsibility to the nation to inform seriously.
One only hopes that some day there will be a full investigation to establish the extend of this dereliction of duty by the government and the motive behind it. There is no doubt that one of the reasons for under reporting the covid-19 cases and deaths was to cover-up the blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic and even boast of containing it!
If we do not carryout a thorough investigation and bring those responsible to account; how can we be certain this will not happen again!
Thanks to MISA for taking this up!
Zimbabwe has purchased 600 000 Covid-19 vaccine doses from China's Sinopharm, in addition to 200 000 China has donated, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa has revealed.
China last week listed Zimbabwe among the first three African countries that will get free doses of the Chinese vaccine, along with 11 other developing nations.
Mutsvangwa told a post-cabinet media briefing that the country will also take delivery of the first batch of the vaccines it had purchased from China early next month.
"The donation and initial batch purchased are expected in Zimbabwe by 15 February 2021 and the first week of March 2021, respectively," she said.
She said Zimbabwe had also purchased an unspecified amount of Russia's Sputnik vaccine, while India, like China, has also offered a donation and an option to purchase commercially.
Zimbabwe has also submitted interest to participate in the African Union COVID-19 vaccines program, the minister added.
China’s generosity surpassing all understanding! The country is donating 200 000 vaccine valued at US$5 or so each, total US$1 million.
How much in looted diamonds are the Chinese shipping out of Zimbabwe? The Chinese together with their local partner, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) have just seized one of the most productive diamond fields in Marange, to add to their existing claims.
The Chinese are shipping out US$200 million worth of diamonds per year, at least, and they have been active in Marange and Chiadzwa ever since the diamond bonanza in 2006; except for a short period when Mugabe booted them out and they saw to it that he was booted out. So 15 years of wholesale looting giving a total US$3 billion!
China has looted US$ 3 billion and gives US$ 1 million or 0.03% of the looted diamonds as a vaccine donation.
Of course, China will pull all the stops to make sure Zimbabwe does not hold free, fair and credible elections; China is scared of regime change in Zimbabwe than Zanu PF thugs themselves! If the ZDF got 10%, US$300 million, of the loot then the Chinese are indeed being very generous!
In our fight for free, fair and credible elections we have not only Zanu PF thugs to deal with but worst of all the Chinese dragon hiding in the shadows. One should know one’s enemies; after 40 years of the Chinese helping Zanu PF to rig elections, we do know our enemies!
At the beginning of the year, Zimbabwe faced an unprecedented surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, but there was always a lingering feeling that the government was not telling the full story.
The number of cases skyrocketed, while government officials gave contradictory and sometimes conflicting information about what the true situation on the ground was.
For example, on one hand, Information ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana said the country was overwhelmed, while Vice-President Kembo Mohadi, on the other hand, said the country had enough beds to cater for Covid-19 patients and there was no need to panic. However, in spite of the government's assurances, a number of people took to social media enquiring for information on where they could get oxygen and hospital beds, which seemed to fly in the face of suggestions that the authorities had everything under control.
This necessitated the court application for further information and clarity on the country's state of preparedness and the availability of medical personnel and equipment in line with Section 62 of the constitution that guarantees the right to access to information.
Access to information in the public interest is very important, particularly during a pandemic or natural disasters, as this assists citizens and the nation at large, to make informed decisions about their right to life and the right to health.
It is against that background that Misa Zimbabwe on January 15, 2020, filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court citing the ministers of Health and Child Care, and Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services as respondents in the matter.
It was Misa Zimbabwe's well considered view that the information that the government was disseminating about the Covid-19 pandemic and the public health situation was incomplete, uninformative and inadequate.
There is no deny that this Zanu PF government is more concerned about hiding its blundering incompetence in the handling of the nation’s affairs including the economy, health service and the corona virus pandemic. WHO has recommended testing, tracing, tracking and isolation as the only way to monitor the corona virus and stop it spreading.
It is clear Zanu PF’s plan was to keep the official covid-19 cases and deaths as low as possible by carrying out very few tests.
In December 2020 when SA was doing over 44 000 covid-19 tests per day; Zimbabwe with 1/4 SA’s population should have been doing over 11 000 tests we were doing 1 500 tests on a really good day!
There have been thousands, if not tens of thousands, of corona virus deaths, much more that the official 1 398 deaths. Many covid-19 dead were never tested for the virus although many of them had all the symptoms and it is inexcusable why they were never ever tested for the virus.
Zanu PF has deliberately under reported the corona virus situation in Zimbabwe so the party can brag of having contained the virus! By failing to test and isolate Zimbabwe has helped the virus spread far and wide and fast. So many more people have and will be infected and many have dead and will die; all for the sake of bragging over a lie!
Zanu PF is not going to ignore the High Court ruling, saving its bragging rights is more important than saving human lives!
"The war against the global Covid-19 pandemic is far from over," Mnangagwa said.
"We are in the thick of it. We dare not lose it.
"Each Zimbabwean who falls to the pandemic is a grim reminder that the pandemic is real and a danger to our nation."
"These measures are predicated on strict enforcement and adherence to World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols and the roll-out of our vaccination programme."
Zimbabwe's Covid-19 cases have been going down in the past few days after a second wave that began early this year left thousands infected and killed hundreds of people.
Zimbabwe is expected to roll out its vaccination programme this week after receiving a donation 200 000 doses of China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine.
Ever since the outbreak of the corona virus, WHO have recommended testing, tracing, tracking and isolation as the only way to monitor and contain the pandemic. Zanu PF has not been testing for no other reason than to keep the official covid-19 cases and deaths low - if one is not tested for the virus then they will never be counted as covid-19 case regardless of having the symptoms galore!
The reason why Zanu PF has not been testing as recommended is because the party wants to keep the official covid-19 cases and deaths low for the purpose of hiding its blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic and has even been bragging the low numbers proves the regime contained the virus. A damned lie, of course!
@Chimusoro
“Nothing to cheer for here young man. People are dying like flies too in Zimbabwe but these clueless dickheads don't tell us correct number of deaths. They have no effective system in place to test, track and trace. Nothing to cheer about here when we receive vaccine 200 000 doses with 20% efficacy.”
Exactly! We have received 200 000 vaccines and we need 20 million to vaccinate 10 million to reach the head immunity. It will be this time next year, if we are lucky before we achieve that. How many people will have died in that period?
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