Launch blitz against border-coronavirus

Stephen Mpofu

The worldwide fight against the coronavirus must be sustained, like the popularity of a hit song, until the pandemic has become a proverb — something by which humanity remembers the past.

But in our motherland any hopes for a transcended coronavirus era may remain forlorn unless national efforts against the coronavirus become brick-and-mortar.

Yes, Zimbabweans have to a very large extent responded well to Government measures for us to take cover and in that way save lives that would otherwise be imperilled by the virus ravenously hunting for human lives to devour across the globe.

To some extent, therefore, kudos to Zimbabweans are in order.

Yet a panoramic view of the responses to Government rules and directives against the coronavirus is wont to expose our success so far as being modicum because of loopholes that need to be sealed to safeguard lives being endangered by the failure of most people out there to follow laid down anti-coronavirus measures and by border-jumpers, especially from South Africa, who may be carriers of the killer Covid-19 disease.

Recently a Chronicle news crew discovered on a tour along the Limpopo River that smuggling syndicates daily operated with impunity between Zimbabwe and South Africa ferrying goods across the Limpopo River on hired inflatable boats to and fro for fees of between R150 and R500 apparently under the noses of security forces.

Last Friday people from Bulawayo who attended the burial in Mwenezi District of a relative murdered in Namibia reported that other relatives of the deceased working and living in South Africa said they had jumped the border and paid bribes to law enforcement agents along the way to get back home.

This suggests that for a long time no action has been taken in both South Africa and Zimbabwe to stop illegal border crossings between the two countries.
Vice-President Kembo Mohadi, who heads the country’s taskforce to tackle the pandemic, not so long ago urged people to take Covid-19 seriously, saying if people are allowed through the porous borderline,

Zimbabwe was likely to suffer the consequences since the country was not well-equipped to fight the scourge.

The burial of Kasper Mtombeni — a 43-year-old tourism entrepreneur in Namibia for twenty years — murdered by two white youths aged 23 and 24 respectively who have been remanded in custody to August for their case to be heard — itself exposed glaring anomalies in the fight against coronavirus in some rural areas in this country.

For instance, and in spite of embassy upon embassy of words instructing people verbally and in writing on how to protect themselves and others against the coronavirus, mourners reportedly embraced each other and shook hands as they exchanged condolences.

Secondly, some of the mourners in the gathering estimated at over 300, reportedly removed their face masks apparently to expose their full identity and to have put them on again, no doubt touching the front of the masks contrary to warnings that such actions expose the wearer of the mask to contamination.

Thirdly, no social distancing was observed whatsoever although a traditional leader announced that the burial ceremony would be restricted to three hours.

A very strong case no doubt exists here for greater efforts now to be concentrated on educating more Zimbabweans out there in the countryside on protective measures to take against the coronavirus since normalcy appears to be returning to urban areas with the informal sector given the green light to resume operations but on strict instructions to follow Government regulations against the spread of Covid-19.

Finally, it is all very well to receive the large numbers of our fellow Zimbabweans returning home to their native Zimbabwe. However, it should be remembered that some of the returnees left the country for political reasons to seek refuge abroad and as such they might come back with masked clenched fists and raring for revenge which might result in political disturbances in the country and in the process worsen any economic recovery in addition to the current illegal economic embargo by the West which continues to froth at the mouth while seeking illegal regime change as a reprisal for the land reform programme by the Zanu-PF Government.