Zimbabwe Information Secretary Nick Mangwana who sparked a row by suggesting that some Zimbabwe government ministers and officials who have succumbed to COVID-19 could have been deliberately killed by opposition-supporting doctors.
Following the angry reaction of social media and the Zimbabwe medical association, Mangwana has retracted his accusation of “medical assassins”.
According to a New Zimbabwe report, he was responding to a Twitter thread on Sunday. Mangwana said “this is what’s leading to the unfortunate conspiracy theories that there are certain political players being eliminated in hospitals by political activists hiding behind medical qualifications”.
New Zimbabwe reports that UK activist Dewa Mavinga slammed the “reckless propaganda and baseless innuendo” against the medical profession.
Zimbabwe has seen four ministers, a former minister, an ex-legislator, several Zanu-PF officials and former soldiers succumb to COVID-19 since July last year.
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) expressed dismay over the issue, saying that there were no professional assassins in the doctors’ ranks in Zimbabwe.
In a statement, the ZADHR said it was concerned about the escalating tensions in the health sector.
“Of key concern are the branding of certain medical professionals as ‘medical assassins’ by a senior government official, threats of arrests, and deregistration of medical practitioners who are alleged to have communicated unethical statements on social media.
“ZADHR strongly advises against continuous persecution of health care professionals. Cases of alleged medical misconduct, if any, must always be handled by the appropriate medical regulatory bodies. Across the globe, self-regulation of medical practitioners has been adopted as the standard approach for ensuring adherence to the highest standards of ethical practice in the medical sector.”
The ZADHR said the continuous persecution of medical practitioners is likely to destabilize the health sector at a time the government is struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
A BBC Africa correspondent reports that some Zimbabweans have noted that, because of lockdown restrictions, the country's political elites are no longer able to rush abroad to seek medical treatment as former President Robert Mugabe once did so routinely. Instead Zimbabwe's rulers are now obliged, mid-pandemic, to depend on a health system which they stand accused of breaking, he says.
Polity reports that Russia and China have approached Zimbabwe about supplying vaccines to tackle its escalating COVID-19 outbreak amid concern about Harare's ability to afford the shots, with plans for meetings with business leaders who have offered to pay for them. Portia Manangazira, a director of epidemiology and disease control in the Zimbabwe Health Ministry, told a parliamentary committee that China and Russia were among those that had approached Zimbabwe to offer supplies of their COVID-19 vaccines.
"They have near pre-qualified vaccines and those are going to be for sale…they might offer a small donation," Manangazira said without elaborating. Acting Health Secretary Robert Mudyirandima said President Emmerson Mnangagwa would meet business leaders who have offered to finance vaccines to help out the cash-strapped government.
Zimbabwe is also in contact with the World Health Organisation's COVAX scheme set up to deliver shots to poor and lower-income countries. Harare hopes to use COVAX to inoculate about 3 Zimbabweans – or 20% of the population.
[link url="https://www.newzimbabwe.com/mangwana-torchs-twitter-storm-over-claims-ministers-killed-by-activist-doctors/"]Full New Zimbabwe report[/link]
[link url="https://www.polity.org.za/article/zimbabwe-beset-by-soaring-covid-19-cases-gets-vaccine-offers-from-russia-china-2021-01-25"]Full Polity report[/link]