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EDITORIAL COMMENT:COVID-19 safety violations: Govt the worst culprit

Opinion & Analysis
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration has always been found wanting when it comes to implementing its own policies, but its insincerity in enforcing COVID-19 regulations should be one of the worst-case scenarios.

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration has always been found wanting when it comes to implementing its own policies, but its insincerity in enforcing COVID-19 regulations should be one of the worst-case scenarios.

In fact, it has become the single biggest threat in terms of the spread of the contagion.

Each day on television, in the newspapers, on radio stations and social media, senior government officials are encouraging people to observe the prescribed safety rules, but the same administration has failed, maybe unwittingly, to disperse members of the Johane Marange apostolic sect who were gathered in their thousands at their shrine in Mafararikwa village, Bocha in Manicaland province from July 3 until last night.

Mnangagwa himself pronounced that such gatherings are banned and warned that whoever is seen violating the ban will be dealt with ruthlessly.

It, however, seems like the sect is immune and above the law.

The government’s insincerity came to the fore last week when Information ministry secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana was asked on Twitter why police were failing to arrest or at least disperse them.

Mangwana, who has abundantly demonstrated that he is bereft of the basic communication skills required for the job, curtly said: “The police have not seen them”.

What an appalling answer!

It’s no secret that the sect members vote en masse for Zanu PF.

Mnangagwa himself as well as his predecessor the late Robert Mugabe visited the shrine religiously each year.

The sect has thus been allowed to do as it pleases for the sake of votes, damn the health consequences.

And to make matters worse, the sect is notorious for dissuading its adherents from seeking modern medication, preferring divination for cure.

There is no prize for guessing whether the thousands gathered at that shrine have been vaccinated.

These are the same people who shunned other vaccination programmes, measles for instance, which led to death of many children not so long ago.

Only God knows what sort of calamity shall befall the nation since the sect has ended its pilgrimage and trooped back to our fragile communities.