Demonstrating in the midst of Covid19:A case of misplaced priorities

by | Jul 30, 2020 | Opinion | 0 comments

Saxon Zvina

The year 2020 started with few isolated cases of Corona Virus later renamed Covid19 in the city of Wuhan and Hunan Province.The whole world never knew that this was going to be a global pandemic which was going to alter the way people live.By March the pandemic had started spreading like veld fire,Africa and Zimbabwe to be specific wasn’t spared either.

The world economies were shaken and USA to date has recorded over 150 000 deaths,more than 6million infections,over 42million people have lost jobs,the economy is shrinking and over US$5trillion has been printed by the Federal Reserve to bail out.Zimbabwe so far has recorded about 34 deaths and notable figures have succumbed to the pandemic.

The Zimbabwean opposition party in the wake of the pandemic has never voiced about easing of economic restrictions imposed on the nation by Washington to ease them that the nation can access aid.The UN even called for the easing of sanctions on Iran,Venezuela,Sudan,North Korea and Zimbabwe so that they fight the pandemic as their economies are saddled.

The WHO issued guidelines to be followed in order to combat the spread of the virus to safeguard the world populace.The Zimbabwe’s detractors wished the worst for the nation and went on to sponsor some of opposition activities to embark on a flash demo in a high density are in the midst of a contagious disease which is really mind boggling.The reason for the demonstration was premised on flimsy excuses and the numbers of infections started swelling.The government since the onset of the lockdown tried to ease the lockdown regulations so that people can fend for themselves given that our economy is now in formalised since the turn of the millennium.

The spike in the number of infections never made the nation’s detractors to think twice about loss of human lives in Zimbabwe which they are even subjected to in their backgrounds as evidenced by their support of the July 31 demos.The call for a demonstration is absurd especially given the way the virus spreads.The demonstration might be a way to decimate an already crippled health delivery system which the nation has and this is demonstration is coming against a background of industrial action by health personnel is this coincidence normal?.

The right to hold a demonstration is enshrined in the constitution ie section 59 but this right is also infringement to life which is sanctity thus common sense should have prevailed as the world is in the midst of fighting the pandemic and adherence to WHO guidelines is of paramount importance.

People need to participate in the fight against the pandemic as nobody is safe and all right thinking people need to spread the message of fighting the pandemic and discourage those who want to end innocent people’s lives by going on a mass infection drive masquerading as a demonstration against the government.The Western embassies never condemned this barbaric act as it serves their interests and this goes on to show that to them black lives do not matter.

This is the time to think as Zimbabweans first the party activists later,we shouldn’t lose many more lives to this pandemic even of those differ with politically.We need to do all we can to mitigate and ameliorate the effects of Covid19 by adhering to the WHO guidelines wherever we are and the worst victims if we don’t adhere to these regulations will be our children.

Saxon Zvina writes in his own opinion and can be contacted at saxonzvina@gmail.com/Twitter:saxonzvina2

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