news in depth: BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA
Many Zimbabweans have predicted a tough 2021 characterised by food shortages, further economic decline, deterioration of human rights coupled with the ravages of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
The country has just come out of a turbulent 2020 that saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government scale up human rights abuses while Covid-19-induced hunger was commonplace. The health and education situation deteriorated due to perennial job action by doctors, nurses and teachers over salaries.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo said he sees a worsening health crisis this year as Covid-19 cases continue to rise.
He said he foresaw an increased shortage of health workers at hospitals as many of them are increasingly going into isolation after contracting Covid.
“We have been making endless calls for government to prioritise the welfare of health workers by providing the necessary equipment and personal protective equipment,” Dongo said.
“Nurses have been risking their lives attending to Covid-19 patients without the necessary requirements and they have turned out to be victims. After the ministry scrapped the flexible working hours, nurses have been crowding health institutions and have been exposed further to the deadly virus.”
Dongo said he could not see any chance of government improving local health institutions as there was little that was being done to stop looting of funds.
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“Government is losing millions from funds which are meant for reviving the health sector and not much has been done to curb corruption and no efforts have been put forward to recover losses from corruption,” he said.
He said if government did not address the plight of health workers in the wake of coronavirus, there would be a serious crisis in the health sector which would result in many deaths.
Last year, the ministry of Health and Child Care came into the spotlight more than any other government ministry owing to the deadly global Covid-19 pandemic.
The first Covid-19 case was recorded in March, but government response was marred by confusion as authorities, frontline workers and the general public lacked knowledge on the pandemic. The poor state of local health institution was also an issue of concern in dealing with coronavirus.
Government did not have enough funds for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other needs in fighting the pandemic and underpaid health workers retreated and later withdrew their services out of fear of the virus and also in demand of better compensation. This resulted in a three-month-long nurses’ strike which further disrupted health delivery service.
In the midst of the raging pandemic and without health workers at hospitals, Zimbabwe recorded a spike in the number of mortalities in hospitals including stillbirths and maternal deaths. Non-critical patients were turned away from health institutions as the entire health system hurtled towards collapse.
Zimbabwe received funding from donors, including $60 million from the European Union and $45 million from the UK, towards fighting the coronavirus pandemic. But, despite this intervention from donors, there was no significant improvement to the health system in terms of infrastructure and drugs availability in health institutions.
Obadiah Moyo, former Health minister, was fired for inappropriate conduct after he allegedly awarded a US$60 million tender to controversial businessman Delish Nguwaya’s Drax International. Moyo was fired after an outcry from the members of the public and other civic society groups who accused him of corruption.
In order to save the health ministry from collapse, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga as the new minister of Health and Child Care.
In his pledge as the new minister, Chiwenga vowed to “restore dignity” and revive the collapsing ministry. But the disquiet among health staff seemed to increase with nurses’ demonstrations and strikes for better wages and working conditions continuing and even worsening under the retired general’s watch.
Apparently irked by this lack of discipline, the former soldier deployed military tactics to force striking nurses back to work. He ordered all striking nurses struck off the government payroll as punishment for calling for better wages, an action that sunk the workers’ morale deeper. The disgruntled health workers then approached the High Court for reprieve.
As Health minister, Chiwenga failed to invest in workers retention policies since the ministry is facing critical shortages of doctors. His intimidation tactics rather scared away health workers who sought employment abroad, further crippling the under-staffed health sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Chiwenga would himself fly out of the country occasionally to seek treatment, sending wrong signals about his confidence in a health system he superintends over.
The Health ministry also appeared at sea on how to deal with private health players who seemed to have taken advantage of the Covid pandemic to milk desperate citizens of their money. They especially charged a leg and an arm for Covid tests, most of which were fake.
As the Health minister, Chiwenga failed to deal with the flouting of tenders in Covid-19 supplies, as senior government officials continued to be fingered in unprocedural tender- awarding processes.
Not only did the pandemic impact on the health sector, but the Finance ministry also had its own share of miseries. The lockdown disrupted business operations and this impacted heavily on payment of taxes, the major source of government revenue.
Southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch Dewa Mavhinga also said the biggest human rights challenge this year would be the right to health in the face of an ongoing and escalating public health crisis owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the continued economic meltdown was likely to trigger more protests and dissent against government “The right to food is yet another human right which is likely to be violated this year,” Mavhinga said.
“Fifty percent of Zimbabweans are in dire need of food aid, but massive looting and mismanagement of command agriculture funds resulted in government failing to secure food for the nation.
“Worsening poverty and adverse economic conditions will likely lead to more protests as citizens demand better conditions of living. These protests may, however, be counterproductive as government is likely to respond to the protests with a heavy hand including violence and force especially given that the government has already shown that it does not tolerate criticism and freedom of expression.”
Mavhinga also said arbitrary arrests of protesters were likely to continue in the year 2021 and that many people were likely to be jailed for speaking against the establishment.
Employers Association of Tourism Operators president Clemence Mkwasi predicted that in the first quarter of the year 2021, there would be continued limited activity on international tourism as cross-border travelling was still restricted in most countries due to Covid-19.
He said foreign currency collections from tourism would not surpass 30% of the usual earnings in normal periods. Mkwasi also said an increase in tourists was expected in the third quarter after the rolling-out of the Covid-19 vaccines in several countries.
“In the event that the government does not impose another lockdown which restricts movement, there will be a surge in domestic tourism because amid the second wave of the coronavirus, borders will remain shut and locals will not travel abroad for tourism, but will be forced to make use of local tourism resort areas,” he said.
“Inactivity in international tourism will result in a fall in prices, which is likely to attract more local tourists this year. But if Covid-19 cases continue to surge and government imposes yet another lockdown, most tourism companies will liquidate, and it may take time for fallen players to be able to recover again while others will never make it.”
Education has also been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools reopened for less than four months throughout the year 2020, but the ministry has not come up with key policies to counter the disruptions by the pandemic.
Physical learning was suspended in April 2020 due to theCovid-19 lockdown and was scheduled to resume in September, but teachers went on strike, demanding better wages.
Government failed to consider the time lost and swiftly deal with the crisis in the Primary and Secondary Education ministry through meeting the teachers’ demands. Instead, Education minister Cain Mathema threatened to replace the 120 000 striking teachers with 10 000 unemployed teachers.
Just like what happened to the nurses, teachers were forced to return to work or risk having their contracts terminated.
No special consideration was given to promote rural education after government introduced online lessons during the lockdown on radio and television which were not accessible to rural pupils due to the digital divide which further marginalised the rural learner.
Due to poor planning and preparation, the reopening of schools was characterised by chaos as most public schools failed to adhere to the World Health Organisation guidelines on social distancing due to over-enrolment. The under-funded ministry did not have enough PPE for teachers who had also become frontline workers. This resulted in some schools closing mid-term following outbreaks of Covid-19 cases at several schools. Pupils that contracted the virus had to write exams in isolation.
Despite teachers’ union leaders calling for a postponement of the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations (Zimsec) examinations on the basis that the pupils had not yet covered essentials of the syllabi, Mathema insisted that pupils sit for the examinations. The Zimsec examinations were, however, characterised by leakages, omissions, missing pages and confusion of sitting dates, a clear indication of management failure by the ministry and poor preparation.
In the energy sector, uninterrupted power supply during the beginning of the year 2020 was a major improvement in the ministry which was then headed by Fortune Chasi. Under Chasi, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority managed to pay part of the debt owed to South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, to enhance supply of electricity which marked the end of an 18-hour load-shedding periods. Chasi was, however, fired from government by Mnangagwa, who, although he commended the minister for ensuring constant power supply, said his conduct was no longer consistent with his expectations.
Mnangagwa critics said Chasi was fired for blocking renowned fuel tycoon Kuda Tagwirei, believed to be linked to Mnangagwa, from engaging in corrupt fuel dealings. Chasi was replaced by little known Soda Zhemu, the Muzarabani North legislator.
