Confusion over govt’s Covid-19 vaccination, messaging

The continued prevalence of irregularities in the fight against Covid-19 in Zimbabwe mirrors the despicable conditions in the country’s public healthcare delivery system.

Corruption in the pandemic’s humanitarian aid continues to increase and its perpetrators are never prosecuted.

Following the commencement of the National Rollout and Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP), there have been clear cases of vaccine discrimination whereby children of high-ranking politicians have gained access to the Sinopharm vaccine before highrisk frontline workers could get it.

There have been unprecedented contradictions in vaccine information dissemination by the government.

This has undermined transparency and accountability in the manner in which the authorities are making use of aid from development partners and purchasing the vaccine from the manufacturers.

Access to healthcare is one of the fundamental rights that every citizen of Zimbabwe is entitled to.

This right is clearly provided for in local, regional and international statutes.

Section 76 (1) of constitution of Zimbabwe stipulates that “every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has the right to have access to basic health-care services, including reproductive health-care services”.

After almost a year following the spiral spread of Covid-19 and subsequent series of national lockdowns, the country is in the midst of administering the pandemic vaccines to frontline workers.

However, the government has not been transparent and accountable in developing the vaccine rollout plan.

On February 15, 2021, Zimbabwe received its first batch of vaccines (Sinopharm) from the People’s Republic of China.

On this day, the country received a total of 200 000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

This followed after the Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe on February 2, 2021 said: “Zimbabwe will be one of the first 14 countries to receive vaccine aid from China very soon.”

The government announced a phased vaccination programme and on February 18, 2021, the first phase consisting of high-risk frontline staff commenced.

The government’s inconsistency in policy pronouncement is not new, but with Covid-19related information, the problem seems to be escalating.

Besides a total of 400 000 Sinopharm vaccines/doses donated by China to Zimbabwe, the government has not clearly disseminated information on how many vaccines it had actually procured as at May 7, 2021 when the country received its second batch of 400 000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

The government’s transparency and accountability in the procurement of vaccines came under public scrutiny when its spokesperson Nick Mangwana and state media posted on social media varying figures regarding the source and number of procured jabs.

Such contradictions in Covid-19 information dissemination sparked a public outcry on social media with people demanding an explanation of over 56 000 doses variance.

This online citizen oversight role resulted in Mangwana backtracking and posting on Twitter information that was congruent to what Mnangagwa has said during his vaccines acceptance speech.

The dissemination of contradicting information regarding Covid-19 vaccination raises questions on government’s transparency and accountability.

In his earlier tweet, Mangwana indicated that 144 000 doses had been bought from Sinopharm, but Mnangagwa, as reported by the

ZBC, noted that 200 000 doses were actually procured from Sinovac.

Under these circumstances of a blurred vaccination process, public confidence in the government becomes further eroded as people find it difficult to trust a government that disseminates contradicting policy positions

Following the confirmation of Zimbabwe’s first Covid-19 case in March 2020, the fight against the pandemic has been riddled with high-profile corruption cases.

Tenders for the procurement and supply of Covid-19 personal protective equipment, test kits and other medical consumables were fraudulently awarded to companies linked to high-profile government officials.

In one such case, the former Health and Child Care minister Obadiah Moyo was arrested in June 2020 for corruptly awarding Drax Consult SAGL, a foreign-owned company, a tender to supply Covid-19-related medical goods.

However, he has not yet faced any prosecution.

According to Transparency International Zimbabwe, a total of 1 400 complaints were made to the organisation and they relate to corruption in healthcare particularly the embezzlement of Covid-19 pandemic humanitarian aid .

Recently, a principal director of epidemiology and disease control in the Health and Child Care ministry, Portia Mananganzira, was arrested by the country’s anti-graft watchdog, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

She was arrested on allegations of misappropriating funds and fuel meant for training community health workers involved in Covid-19 awareness campaigns.

However, as in the case of Moyo, the case of Manangazira is highly likely going to suffer stillbirth.

These continued cases of corruption stand in the way of building a robust health delivery system in Zimbabwe.