Zimbabwe in Lockdown:
COVID-19 & Human Rights
from a community perspective
2.0
OVERALL ANALYSIS
It was clear from the beginning of the lockdown on March 30 that government had made the
announcement to lock down the country without any plan on how to deal with the social impact on
citizens, and with over 85 percent of Zimbabweans in the informal sector, the levels of social
vulnerability were to go up.
This is also because the country’s economy was already struggling, with inflation hovering above 700
percent and over eight million people in dire need of food aid.
COVID19, and the lockdown, therefore presented a huge challenge to government, and was also an
opportunity for the same government to prove its ability to provide social protection and other rights
as enshrined in Chapter 4 of the Constitution.
The month of April, was as a result, a key month in the human rights record of Zimbabwe, as for the
first time, socio-economic rights were under scrutiny more than ever before.
During the beginning of the lockdown, government’s lack of preparedness was exposed when none
of the hospitals countrywide had the capacity to deal with COVID19 patients.
Years of neglect have left health institutions derelict and collapsed, and with healthcare
workers earning a pittance, and suffering from low morale, the risk was at its highest as
COVID19 cases began to rise across the world.
Wilkins Hospital in Harare, which had closed for renovations during the last week of March with
funding from the Chinese government, reopened on 8 April with a reported capacity to handle 60
patients at a time.
The hospital’s derelict nature had been exposed after Zororo Makamba was admitted there and
succumbed to COVID19.
However, even with a capacity to handle 60 patients, Wilkins was, at the time, the only institution
capable of handling COVID19 patients countrywide.
As noted in Bulawayo, citizens in the region complained that the state had side-lined the region by
failing to equip any local hospital with necessary knowledge and equipment ahead of the COVID 19
pandemic.
Minister July Moyo did not make the situation any better when he suggested that any COVID 19
patients would have to be taken to Harare.
The affirmations of such later forced the government to help equip Ekusileni Hospital and set Thorn
grove Clinic as an isolation centre.
The two hospitals are reported to be functioning after stakeholders, mainly private players stepped in
to fill the void left by government’s slow reaction to the issue.
REPORT
HUMAN RIGHTS
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