adminManicaland Bureau
Manicaland needs to make collective efforts to ensure those returning into the country through illegal crossing points along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border are identified and quarantined to prevent Covid 19.
The province shares a 700km stretch of border with Mozambique and cases of people coming into the country illegally and those crossing into Mozambique to buy basic commodities for resale are rampant.
Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba said these movements were a major problem.
“The control of the spread of the Covid 19 spread is a collective responsibility. We need to create some channel of communication that will transmit information to the taskforce so that we can quickly address such issues.
“It is difficult for us to completely safeguard the borderline since we share a stretch of 700km of border with Mozambique. However, we have intensified security along the border. We have identified the usual points that are used by people and we have increase security officers at these points but it is difficult to keep track of the whole stretch so we need to work with the communities,” she said.
She spelt the need for sensitisation programmes that will open up communication channels between communities and authorities.
“We need to conscientise them so that they alert authorities whenever they see someone in their community whom they suspect to have entered the country illegally. This has started working because we have been receiving information on such cases and we are following up. We are engaging local leadership, the Members of Parliament, councillors and chiefs to educate the people in all border areas,” she said.
She said quarantine for all returning residents was mandatory and should not be viewed as a punishment.
Manicaland has identified 10 facilities that are being used as quarantine facilities in the province.
To date, 384 people who came through Forbes, Plumtree and Beitbridge border posts are in quarantine.
Online Reporter