Big corporates should contribute more to fight Covid-19
BIG corporates in Zimbabwe should dig deeper in their pockets and contribute more towards the Government’s ongoing efforts to contain and stop the spread of Covid-19, Norton legislator, Temba Mliswa, has said
The Covid-19 outbreak has increased the burden of financial resources that Zimbabwe needs this year for humanitarian efforts, totalling US$2,2 billion, including US$220 million required for the fight against the pandemic.
Mr Mliswa’s call comes after President Mnangagwa on Sunday extended the nationwide lockdown from 19 April, 2020 to May 3, 2020 amid threats of growing incidents of the pandemic, which has already infected 25 and killed three in Zimbabwe.
The Norton independent Member of Parliament, made the call at an event where Norton based cooking oil giant, Cangrow Trading (Raha cooking oil manufacturer), donated an assortment of goods worth $1 million towards fighting the deadly viral disease.
He applauded the gesture by the company, saying this comes as Government is overwhelmed with competing funding needs and the private sector should move in with honest and sincerity to help, but also must demand transparency and accountability from those charged with handling the disaster donations.
Although relatively young, Cangrow Trading, which also chipped with significant resources during the last national disaster after the country was hit by Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, is now one of Zimbabwe cooking oil makers with capacity to meet half the national demand.
Mr Mliswa said if relatively smaller firms like Cangrow could part with $1 million to help in the fight against the disease, bigger corporates with more resources, should inevitably do more for localities they operate in to protect citizens and help those affected by the disease.
He applauded the corporate world for the donations they have already made to the President towards national efforts against the Covid-19 pandemic, caused by coronavirus first detected in the Chinese City of Wuhan.
He challenged the big corporates to do more at community level. Mr Mliswa said big corporates should appreciate President Mnangagwa’s efforts under the New Dispensation to open up Zimbabwe for business, typified by scrapping of bottlenecks such as the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, by doing more in times of crises.
“The big firms like Innscor, Delta and OK Zimbabwe must do more in the communities they operate in. It’s a good they that they have donated to the President for the fight against Covid-19, but they should also do it at community level, as this can be faster in reaching to the affected people,” he said.
Mr Mliswa said the statistics of coronavirus cases and related deaths were startling and Zimbabwe needed to scale up measures to contain it including through stricter monitoring of quarantined cases and handling, screening and testing of returning residents.
Zimbabwe will require swift action and significantly more corporate resources from the corporate world in order to quickly and effectively contain and stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as minimise the negative impact of the current lockdown on the domestic economy.
Cangrow Trading managing director Ankit Jain, said it was critical that his company intervened with a donation of $1 million to Norton Constituency to help preserve the health and wellbeing of the people at a time the country is facing trying times in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is a once in a lifetime outbreak, usually once in 100 years and since our company is operating in Norton, we saw it fit to give our first donation towards the fight against Covid19 to the Norton constituency by donating items worth RTGS$1 million targeting 4 000 households,” Mr Jain said.
The company’s donation included 2 remote-controlled hospital beds, 750 face masks, 100 litres of hand sanitiser, 250 litres of surface disinfectant, 10 000 pairs of latex gloves, 10 units of 20-litre buckets, 100 pieces adult nasal prongs, 8 000 litres of cooking oil, and 4 wheelchairs.