adminWalter Nyamukondiwa
Kariba Bureau
TRADITIONAL leaders have been asked to be on the lookout for people who are circumventing screening and quarantine procedures.
This comes amid an increase in cases of returnees that are escaping from quarantine centres across the country while others are entering the country through illegal crossing points and seeking refuge in their rural homes.
In an interview, Mashonaland West provincial Chiefs Council chairperson Senator Chief Ngezi (Peter Pasipamire) said testing for Covid-19 should extend to rural communities as some returnees were sneaking into their villages, putting other villagers at risk.
“We applaud the ongoing testing for Covid-19, but we are facing challenges with some of our people who left the country as border jumpers and coming back through the same route,” said Chief Ngezi.
“This has seen them sneaking into our villages and mingling with others without getting the necessary testing and health services so that they do not expose others to the disease.”
He said there was need for periodic testing in rural communities.
Traditional leaders, he said should be empowered to vet everyone who comes into their areas so that they can flush out the guilty parties.
“We want the power to allow us to know where someone coming into our areas during this lockdown in coming from and there should be penalties that we as traditional leaders can enforce for anyone who harbours a person without notifying us (kraal heads, headmen and chiefs),” said Chief Ngezi.
At least 148 people have escaped from quarantine centres across the country with 23 of them being arrested recently amid calls by the Zimbabwe Republic Police for the public to report any new members who have joined the community without following or completing the Covid-19 screening process.
At least 40 000 people have been arrested so far for violating lockdown restriction aimed at preventing the spread of the Coronavirus which so far claimed four lives in the country and affected nearly 200 people.
Online Reporter