High Court judge Justice Happias Zhou yesterday gave
Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s company, Sakunda Holdings the green light to set up a
COVID-19 medical facility in a leafy suburb of Harare after dismissing an
application by a resident who argued that the facility would expose them to the
deadly virus.
Roger Stringer, through his lawyers Jeremiah Bhamu and Obey
Shava had argued that the COVID-19 wing to be set up at Rockford Medical Centre
would endanger the lives of residents living in Arundel.
He submitted that Sakunda and Health minister Obadiah Moyo
were not authorised to violate his entitlement to protection and should make
use of council-run facilities for infectious diseases such as Wilkins and
Beatrice Road Infectious hospitals.
Stringer submitted that no measures were being put in place
to minimise the exposure brought to his family by the use of such a facility as
a referral centre for infectious diseases in the area.
“The site of the medical facility in question is connected
to a reticulated sewer main across Norfolk Road. These are intertwined with
water supply and are the same sewer reticulation mains which service the
applicant’s household. This again puts the applicant and his family at greater
risk of contracting the infections disease. There is presently no cure or
vaccine for the infectious disease in question, which has been declared a
global pandemic, which easily spread and has to date, claimed a large number of
lives across various countries of the world,” he argued
But, in his ruling Justice Zhou said Stringer had failed to
provide evidence of the feared exposure.
“His exposure to the coronavirus which has not been
approved by evidence must be subordinate to the public interest which can be
saved by refurbishing the medical centre in question in order to establish an
isolation centre,” he ruled.
In its defence, Sakunda argued that Stringer should have
cited the City of Harare as the respondent since they were the licensing
authority in respect to health facilities.
“The close proximity does not in itself endanger the
applicant and his family given that the pandemic is not spread in the manner
explained by the applicant. Applicant’s fear should not be allowed to stand in
the way of the public project,” Sakunda responded. Newsday
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