The chief coordinator for the National Response to the
Covid-19 pandemic in the Office of the President and Cabinet Agnes Mahomva said
this in court papers supporting a ban on elections in Zimbabwe.
She was responding to a challenge against Vice-President
and Health minister Constantino Chiwenga’s Statutory Instrument 225A of 2020
indefinitely suspending by-elections citing Covid-19 regulations.
The Election Resource Centre (ERC), the Women’s Academy for
Leadership (Walpe) and six other applicants have gone to court to challenge the
Health minister’s order suspending elections. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
and President Emmerson Mnangagwa are cited as respondents in the application.
The country is supposed to hold by-elections for over 20
parliamentary seats and 170 local government wards to replace mostly MDC
Alliance MPs and councillors recalled by MDC-T interim leader Thokozani Khupe.
Although lobby groups have accused Chiwenga of violating
the Constitution by suspending elections when countries such as the US and
Tanzania, among others, have successfully conducted polls during the pandemic,
Mahomva said it was not possible to hold by-elections in December because of
Covid-19 fears.
She said cases of Covid-19 had risen since the government
relaxed regulations to curb the spread that included opening of the tourism
sector and resuming domestic flights.
“Whether directly or indirectly as a result of these new
relaxations, the infection rate has started to go up,” Mahomva said. “While the
growth may be marginal at this stage, it has the potential to spike upwards in
a manner which might not be foreseen.”
She added: “It may be that more enforcement of existing
measures is required as well, but certainly should there be a sudden spike like
that experienced around July 2020, then there might be need for more stringent
measures such as those which are being re-introduced in Europe and the Americas.”
Some European countries have been forced back into lockdown
as Covid-19 cases rise.
Mahomva said the period around December 2020 would be one
of the decisive phases in the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As such, I urge against any measures which may create
uncontrolled gatherings, whether small or large, throughout the country. Such
gatherings will be inimical to the country’s efforts to contain the spread of
the virus and have the potential to result in high death rates,” she said.
“I, therefore, give it as my opinion as aforesaid that it
is not advisable to hold by-elections on December 5, 2020 as this may create
uncontrolled gatherings, whether small or large, throughout the country. The
events surrounding the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic are moving in a
direction which justifies my position…”
She said in August, a team of global scientists from the
World Health Organisation, the Africa Centre for Diseases Control and the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted a survey on Zimbabwe’s
response to the Covid-19 pandemic and their conclusion was that the country had
successfully delayed the pandemic due to implementation of stringent public
health and social measures enacted into law in March 2020 including a lockdown.
Last week, experts said the world was staring at a second
wave of Covid-19 that could kill thousands in the country if regulations on
social distancing and proper masking up were not observed.
Health and Child Care deputy minister John Mangwiro yesterday
told The Standard that a possible second wave of Covid-19 would be harder to
deal with than the initial outbreak. Standard
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