The generals and the war against COVID-19: The case of Zimbabwe

Abstract

On 21 March 2020, Zimbabwe's Health Minister in a press conference announced that the first case of COVID-19 from a patient who had recently travelled from England had been recorded. This marked the beginning of rising cases of infections that reached 4893 on 12 August, 2020 and 122 deaths during the same period. Although the country has also had a significant number of recoveries totalling to 1544 as of 12 August, 2020, it is the management of the pandemic in general that is raising concern among citizens and observers alike. Already, the country was facing a series of economic and political challenges as it attempted to recover from the 2017 unanticipated coup that removed the late former president Mugabe from power after decades of his rule, followed by a disputed election that resulted into a post-election violence. Similarly, the country was yet to recuperate from the EU-US led economic sanctions on the country as well as mediocre economic policies that caused rapid depreciation and shortage of the local currency.