Thursday 15 July 2021

"Zimbabwe's covid-19 response in the best in Africa!" bragged Zanu PF - damned lie and an insult P Guramatunhu

"Despite Zimbabwe's COVID-19 response being one of the best on the continent as evidenced by fewer deaths and infections as compared to other nations, for government, a single death is one too many," said information minister, Monica Mutsvangwa.

This is just an insult and one thing I hate above all others is being taken for a fool!

The Zimbabwe government announces there were 2 661 new corona virus cases and 51 deaths bringing the total number of cases and deaths to 76 381 and 2332 respectively since the outbreak of the corona virus in March 2020. If this was true, then our hospitals and clinics will not the overwhelms and the graveyards looking like freshly ploughed fields with new graves.

Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 figures have remained low because the country has not followed the WHO and common-sense recommendation of testing, tracing, tracking and isolating. It is common knowledge that Zimbabwe has deliberately and consistently carried out the fewest covid-19 tests per capita even at a time when the is a significant surge in the covid-19 cases.

In December last year for example, when there was a significant number of corona virus cases in both SA and Zimbabwe; whilst SA was carrying out over 44 000 test per day, Zimbabwe with ¼ SA’s population should have been doing over 11 000 test per day. We were doing 1 500, maximum!

If you were not tested for corona virus then you will never be counted as a corona virus case or death. So, the fewer the tests the fewer the official figure of covid-19; it sounds cynical because it is cynical.

The nation has paid dearly for the bragging rights of “Zimbabwe's COVID-19 response being one of the best on the continent as evidenced by fewer deaths and infections as compared to other nations!” By failing to carry out the tests, the nation could not carry through the follow up activities of tracing, tracking and isolation. And so many individuals who should have been in isolation were left to mix and mingle with the rest spreading the virus far and wide and fast!

There is no such thing as good time for a disease outbreak much less a pandemic; this corona virus has happened at the worst time for Zimbabwe. The outbreak occurred at a time when the country’s economy is in total meltdown and its health care service has all but collapsed after decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and, to crown it all, the nation was still stuck with the corrupt and dysfunctional government.

Ever since the country attained her independence in 1980, over 40 years ago; Zimbabweans have known the country’s ruling elite were corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who rigged elections to stay in power. The nation has had a number of golden opportunities notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but wasted them all.

In the long run, nations get the government the deserve. We in Zimbabwe certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of equally corrupt and utterly useless opposition parties, all 130 of them at the last count.

There is no denying if the corona virus pandemic had happened before independence or some thereafter when Zimbabwe’s economic and health care service were robust and strong, the nation will have fared a lot better than it is doing right now – forget the official covid-19 figures there are lies and an insult!

The corona virus storm is not over and no one knows how long it will last. Whilst we mourn and bury our died, we must remember the worst of this catastrophe could have been avoided if only we, the people of Zimbabwe, had taken our duty to ensure the country had competent and accountable government with the seriousness and urgency the matter demanded. And, more significantly, reflect on what we must do now to finally put an end to the tragic human suffering and deaths that will continue as long as we have a corrupt, tyrannical, vote rigging and utterly useless government.

The Zanu PF government has already started rigging the 2023 elections by arrogantly announcing that 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora will once again be denied the vote. How can the elections be legal, free, fair and credible when 30% of the electorate are denied the vote for no other reason than that Zanu PF does not trust them to vote for the party and it has no opportunity to rig the vote?

It is incumbent on all Zimbabweans to ensure all democratic reforms are implemented to guarantee free and fair elections. Zanu PF and it’s acolyte MDC opposition are gearing for the 2023 elections to proceed with no reforms, knowing fully well the elections will be rigged. It is our duty to make sure the elections are legal, free, fair and credible.

The Zimbabwe ravaged by corona virus whilst the government of the day insults us by falsifying the seriousness of the pandemic and our suffering and deaths is NOT the Zimbabwe we want. And it is high time we demanded the Zimbabwe we, the people, want.

In Zimbabwe it is the ruling elite, tail that has been wagging the dog; that must change, it is the people who must call the shots. “Nyika vanhu!” (It is the ordinary people who constitute a nation!) as one would say in Shona. 

8 comments:

  1. Zanu PF to postpone its party congress in the light of the corona virus.

    59 covid-19 deaths! Believe that lie and you will believe anything! Just because Zanu PF has been careful to avoid testing for the virus does not mean all those people who have died showing all the symptoms of the virus died of malaria or some such nonsense!

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  2. @ Nomazulu
    “This is the painful truth we dread to talk about in Zimbabwe consideration the South African volatile situation. Realizing that the unrest taking place in South Africa are poverty induced, lock-down-induced circumstances, we are bracing for the worst to come in Zimbabwe. For black abjectly poor South Africans to rise, looting of shops that sustain them, plundering and burning of property that make the economy tick, it is naïve to still pin the current violence in SA because of Zuma's prison sentencing.

    Zuma's incarceration was the trigger of a situation that was looming; a time bomb that was about to erupt, will erupt, has erupted, will continue to be for some time to come. Dear governments of southern Africa: address poverty in the lives of millions of your citizens please.

    Zimbabwe is a fertile ground for such a revolution taking place in South Africa and Eswatini. The destitution in the general population, the rising poverty, the covid 19 induced lock-down regulations pushed the people to the limit of what they can endure. The lock-down meant that the people were not able to generate income to sustain families. The Mnangagwa govt had no plans how they were going to assist the population under the global pandemic.”
    Like it or not South Africans will wake-up to the reality that their looting and burning has accomplished nothing of substance. Venting their anger at being unemployed and being poor is one thing but if it makes the situation worse as is the case here; it is foolish. And to protest that Jacob Zuma should be above the law takes the biscuit!

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  3. There is no denying that Zimbabwe's official corona virus cases and deaths are phony, the regime is obsessed about its image and will do anything to hide its blundering incompetence. The real tragedy here is that the nation is paying dearly for the damned lie.

    It is unforgivable that so many Zimbabweans out there know Zanu PF is lying about the corona virus situation and know the dear price the nation is paying for this and yet have elected to say and do nothing about it. Shocking!

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  4. There is no denying that Zimbabwe's official corona virus cases and deaths are phony, the regime is obsessed about its image and will do anything to hide its blundering incompetence. The real tragedy here is that the nation is paying dearly for the damned lie.

    Indeed, the first thing Zanu PF did after the corona virus was declared a pandemic was to pass a law giving the regime the exclusive right to reveal the corona virus cases and deaths in the country. Anyone saying anything else was threatened with a 20 year jail term for reporting "fake news!£

    It is unforgivable that so many Zimbabweans out there know Zanu PF is lying about the corona virus situation and know the dear price the nation is paying for this and yet have elected to say and do nothing about it. Shocking!

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  5. Kwekwe district COVID-19 taskforce chairperson Vitalis Kwashira said they were in dire need of health workers after some of them were been forced into isolation.

    "We are in dire need of help because some of our nurses have tested positive and we have shortages at clinics," Kwashira said.

    "We also do not have enough staff to conduct the vaccination programmes. We have resolved as a committee to write to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces so that we can get staff if possible.
    "We do not have enough isolation centres in Kwekwe. It is like we are breeding the virus at home because people test positive and they get quarantined at home."

    This is not only happening in Kwekwe but in every other town and city across the land. Worst still, the situation in the urban centres is nothing compared to that in the rural back waters. How then is it possible that Zimbabwe has one of the lowest, per capita, corona virus cases and deaths in Africa and even boast about it!

    "Despite Zimbabwe's COVID-19 response being one of the best on the continent as evidenced by fewer deaths and infections as compared to other nations, for government, a single death is one too many," boasted Zimbabwe’s Information Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa.

    Of course, the regime is lying; Zimbabwe’s official corona virus cases and deaths are a fraction of the real figures out there. We are dealing with a regime that is concerned about its image and hiding its blundering incompetence even at the cost of more and easily avoidable human suffering and deaths.

    What makes this tragic situation even worse is that many Zimbabweans know exactly what is going on here and have chosen to say and do nothing about it! There is Africa for you!

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  6. However in an interview with NewZimbabwe.Com Sunday, Ngwenya argued that no amount of vaccinations will eradicate Ccovid 19 as long as people are not following World Health Organization (WHO) COVID 19 preventions protocols.

    "Corona virus follows people's behavior. Right now people are extremely complacent , relaxed and they are still mixing and mingling .So the virus is following the people's behavior and we are having this terrible variant Delta which was confirmed by the government recently," said Ngwenya.
    It is very disappointing to hear someone like Professor Ngwenya blaming the ordinary people for corona virus spreading like wild fire, when he knows the principle culprit in all this is the Zanu PF regime itself. Talk of people not following the WHO’s protocols, has government being doing so? Yes, people should not be mixing and mingling as freely as they are doing but how many are doing so because they do not know they have the virus, no one has tested them to confirm.
    Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 cases and deaths are all damned lies by a regime determined to hide its blundering incompetence in handling the pandemic and it is a crying shame that our health care professionals have played their part in helping the regime lie and thus allow the virus to spread far and wide and fast.

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  7. 50 Mberengwa rural teachers have reportedly been admitted in Munene Mission Hospital with breathing problems.
    Reports doing the rounds are that close to 50 teachers in the Rural schools surrounding the Lutheran church Munene Mission Hospital have been admitted with serious breathing problems suspected to be Covid-19 related.
    The chances are none of the 50 teachers will ever be tested for the corona virus much less the many people they came in contact with and no wonder Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 cases and deaths have remained one of the lowest per capita figures. It is no surprise the regime has been bragging about how well it has handled the pandemic. The truth is it should be bragging about how well it has falsified the figures by doing as few tests as it can, etc. By failing to test the country has kept the truth hidden but at a great price because this has allowed the virus to spread.
    The people of Mberengwa would rather know who has the virus and isolate them than be ignorant and help spread the virus. The regime is the one that is deliberately keeping the nation ignorant for its own selfish reason of bragging about the falsified figures!

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  8. Wilbert Mukori
    Only 88 415 covid-19 cases and 2 747 deaths; this is a damned lie. Zanu PF has contrived to keep the covid-19 figure low by cutting down on the testing. This is folly because by failing to test the country has allowed many more who should have been in isolation to continue mixing with the rest and spreading the virus. Zimbabweans really need to open their eyes to the reality and not continued to be fooled by Zanu PF lies!

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