The Zimbabwe government is holding all Zimbabwe returnees in quarantine and the country has taken the first batch of eight from Mozambique.
When Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980, the country was set to be the South Korea of Africa, a healthy democratic nation with robust and prosperous economy. The nation has instead become the North Korea of Africa, a banana republic with a filthy rich ruling elite few and the masses living in abject poverty and forever begging!
It is common knowledge that when Mozambique gained her independence from the Portuguese, it was one of the poorest nations in Africa. The departing Portuguese colonialists reportedly poured concrete into the sewage system and sabotaged as much of the little infrastructure the country had.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe had good economic infrastructure and robust economy when the country gained her independence. The late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania called the country “the jewel of Africa” and cautioned Robert Mugabe to keep it that way. He wasted his breath!
40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption under the Zanu PF dictatorship have turned the jewel of Africa into one of the poorest in Africa. Zimbabweans have been flocking into the neighbouring countries and beyond to escape poverty and political oppression. Zimbabwe’s economy has all but collapsed and its roads, railway, hospitals and other infrastructure are all in varying stages of rot and decay.
According to a 2019 World Bank report, 34% of Zimbabwe’s 15 million population are living in abject poverty; i.e. they could not afford even one decent meal a day let alone other necessities such as education for the children, health care service for the sick, etc. Extreme poverty in all the other countries in the region is single digit percentage.
Corona virus is set to be one greatest challenge the world has ever faced, no nation has been spared the economic disruption and the humanitarian suffering and deaths. And during trying times like this most nation will struggle to need the basic needs of their own citizens and will not be so generous to foreigners. And so many Zimbabweans are being forced to return home, to a country in worse economic turmoil than they left behind!
Whilst corona virus has spared no one across the globe, all told it will cause as much as 1% deaths in the developed countries. Corona virus is going to hit Zimbabwe very, very hard, the hardest hit in the region. The death toll in Zimbabwe could well soar to as much as 10% of the population and here is why:
· Zimbabwe’s
health care service has all but completely collapse it has no equipment, few health
care workers, no PPE, no medicine and will be completely overwhelmed by a few
hundred patient-days. Without hospital care many will die.
·
· Zanu PF’s
blundering incompetence in handling the virus has allowed covid-19 to spread
far and wide and when the number of cases start to soar, expert to do so with
winter, many more people be infected and all in a short space of time. The
nation at large will be overwhelmed resulting even more suffering and dying
because there was no one to feed the sick.
·
· Most of
corona virus’ deaths are by someone had an existing health problem such as TB,
heart problems, etc. 34% of the population in Zimbabwe live in abject poverty
and cannot afford one decent meal a day much less health care. It therefore is
no surprise the country has many people with serious pre-existing health
problems.
·
· World
Food Program has announced that over four million Zimbabweans are facing starvation
as we speak. The country wide lockdown of the last four weeks will only make
the food shortage worse. The starving is just as susceptible to corona virus
death as those with pre-existing health problems
·
· Those
who do recover from corona virus or are saved by arrival of the vaccine will not
be out of the woods yet. The corona virus induced economic depression is
expected to last a decade in the developed nations and in Zimbabwe economic
recovery will take a lot longer, if at all! Many who did not die of corona
virus will die of starvation and other poverty related problems.
·
Yes,
Zimbabwe could have become the South Korea of Africa but has instead because
the North Korea because that is what Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies wanted.
We, the people of Zimbabwe, could and should have stopped him but did not. The
country had many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, the best
chances falling to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, but wasted them all. Nations get the government their deserve and Zimbabweans certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its coterie equally corrupt and useless opposition parties.
Zimbabwe has paid dearly for having a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and tyrannical government these last 40 years. During a serious international such as this corona virus outbreak, the going will get tough and only the tough will get going. The need for a competent government instead of this corrupt, incompetent and illegitimate (of course the party rigged the July 2018 elections) Zanu PF dictatorship is now more urgent than ever.
The nation’s performs throughout the corona virus pandemic and the decades of economic recovery to follow will depend on how soon this nation replace Zanu PF with a competent and legitimate government.
You missed the point Nomazulu was making her completely! We have a regime that has no regard of rule of law and respect of the rights and freedoms, even the right to free and fair elections and the right to life.
ReplyDeleteSibusiso Moyo, the minister who was hackled was the man who announced the November 2017 military coup against his own boss was “a military assisted transition”. The coup plotters later got Justice George Chiweshe to rule that the coup was “legal, justified and constitutional”!
“If Ndoro humiliated a Zimbabwean Govt Minister in the UK and the law permits her prosecution, then she should have her day in court for her part in the incident,” you said.
So, do you too believe humiliating a minister is a crime but staging a military coup is “legal, justified and constitutional”. And do you also believe Ndoro will get justice from such a corrupt legal system?
There traditional way the regime has dealt with its political critics is to unleash the CIO, they will be the accuser, jury, judge and executioner. Zanu PF justice!
Zanu PF has ruled the nation with an iron fist. “Zanu PF ndeye ropa!” (Zanu PF is a party of blood!) Zanu PF leaders and thugs have often boasted, and it is not an empty threat. The party has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans in cold blood for the sole purpose of establishing the de facto Zanu PF one-party state and retaining at all cost.
The biggest mistake the people have made is to allow themselves to be cowed into silent submission. Of course, it was folly because it did not stop Zanu PF rid roughshod over the nation and look where the regime has landed us.
If the nation had more visionaries like Ndoro or Nomazulu would spoke the truth to power and if one of them was silenced 100 more took her place Zimbabwe would be a free, just and prosperous nation! That is the thrust of Nomazulu’s article, read it again.
Zimbabwe has enough of these water cannons to hose down the every street in every town and city at least once a week! The water cannons were bought for the purpose of hosing protesters when the soldiers are taking a break. The soldiers shoot to kill even with the guns pointing 45 degrees in the air!
ReplyDeleteIt is ironic that Zanu PF has managed to find the money to pay Police, Soldiers and CIO living wages and to buy the latest weapons for their use and yet has failed to pay teachers, nurses and doctors a living wage much less the equipment and medicine. Most hospital do not have clean running water and the repeated call to wash one's hands regularly to stop the spread of corona virus cannot be heeded even in hospitals and clinics!
If the people had access to clean running water they would be able to wash their hands regularly and government will not need to hose down streets with water cannons. Tell you what convert these water cannon trucks into ambulances and funeral wagons - we will need them where we are going!
South Africa now has 5 350 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 103 deaths, meaning the last 24 hours has seen 354 new cases and ten deaths, the biggest jump to date..
ReplyDelete“This is the highest number of cases in a 24-hour cycle recorded to date and represents a 73% increase relative to the day before,” Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced on Wednesday night.
South Africa, just like Zimbabwe, has hoping against hope that the corona cases will start to drop when it has done very little of the isolation and treating. At least SA has been testing aggressively and has a feel of the corona virus reality on the ground. Zimbabwe has been dragging its feet on testing and all its decision to date have been pure guess work, wishful thinking or worse still cooked up figures – Chinese recipe!
Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections and now he thinks he can rig a miraculous covid-19 recovery. This is a very foolish strategy because it will give the nation a false sense of security whilst the virus continue to spread far and wide. The nation will be forced to wake-up when people are dying like flies!
Mnangagwa you can cheat Chamisa and his MDC friends any day and have done it countless time already. But you are nuts if you think you can cheat covid -19 even once!