Ministers Sibusiso Moyo (Foreign Affairs), Joel Biggie
Matiza (Transport) and Ellen Gwaradzimba (Manicaland Provincial Affairs) were
among other senior party and liberation war stalwarts who died from
complications related to the virus and Mangwana claimed on Twitter yesterday
that doctors had become “medical assassins,” and that they were hiding behind
their medical profession.
Most of the now-deceased ministers were admitted at local
private hospitals before they succumbed to the respiratory virus and Mangwana
alleged that some doctors were acting like “mini Josef Mengele”, a Nazi officer
and physician, by threatening to withdraw oxygen based on the political party
that one supported.
Mengele performed medical experiments at the Auschwitz
death camps during World War II.
“I followed that. This is what’s leading to the unfortunate
conspiracy theory that there are certain political players being eliminated in
hospitals by political activists hiding behind medical qualifications,”
Mangwana said in his response.
“In fact, not just political players, but medical
assassins,” he said. His comments irked doctors and observers who immediately
called him to order, accusing him of stoking tensions at a time the country is
struggling to contain the pandemic.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights
(ZADHR) described the branding of doctors as “medical assassins” by a
government spokesperson as irresponsible, adding that this could escalate
tensions in the health sector.
They also said there were threats of arrests and
deregistration of medical practitioners who were 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,” the rights
doctors said.
“Furthermore, we advise that the continuous persecution of
medical practitioners is likely to destabilise the health sector during this
time when the nation is supposed to be focusing on resolving the COVID-19
crisis.”
Earlier, ZADHR executive director Calvin Fambirai said:
“Peddling such conspiracy theories is indecorous and has dangerous public
health consequences. It reduces confidence among patients to seek services for
COVID-19 and also reduces the motivation of frontline workers who are working
under difficult circumstances to deal with the pandemic.
“Besides, healthcare workers have been going all out in
fighting the pandemic under these difficult circumstances.”
The Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Association of
Zimbabwe, an inclusive body that includes nurses, medical doctors, dental
therapists, dentists and laboratory scientists among others, described
Mangwana’s comments as worrisome.
“We as private practitioners, note with concern the social
media rants which seem to point out that there are numerous doctors that may be
involved in the deaths of some individuals,” the association’s president
Johannes Marisa said.
“The accusations are quite unfortunate and worrisome at
this juncture when every health worker has tightened their belts in the midst
of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic. The world is quivering because of the deadly
virus, so we call upon everyone to refrain from inflammatory talk that has
potential to demoralise the resilient front liners who are obviously working
very hard to contain and mitigate against the virus.”
The country is battling a second wave of the coronavirus
and statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Care show that the virus
has been rapidly spreading.
As at yesterday morning, the number of cumulative COVID-19
infections had soared to 31 007, with a total of 974 deaths, and 21 377
recoveries.
Zimbabwe Council of Churches secretary-general Kenneth
Mtata also rubbished the claims that doctors were using COVID-19 to kill
people.
“We are already struggling with mistrust and lack of
confidence in many key institutions. If someone suggests that doctors are
deliberately killing people using COVID-19, then the nation has gone to the
dogs,” Mtata said.
Human rights defender Dewa Mavhinga described Mangwana’s
accusations as “wild and dangerous”.
“Authorities refuse to face the grim reality of the
COVID-19 pandemic, and they now make wild and dangerous claims that political
players are victims of medical assassins. This is utter rubbish, and very
dangerous coming from a government spokesperson,” he said.
Meanwhile, the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission
(NPRC) urged political parties to iron out their differences and work together
to fight the common enemy, COVID-19.
NPRC commissioner Charles Masunungure said the ruling Zanu
PF party, and the opposition should put their differences aside and work
together to confront the pandemic that is ravaging the country and killing a
number of Zimbabweans.
“This is time to put ruling party or opposition party
politics aside, and put our heads together as citizens, build consensus,
brainstorm and fight the common enemy COVID-19 in our midst,” Masunungure said.
“Even wild animals stop fighting when facing an intruding
enemy. Ceasefire politicians,” he said.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his MDC Alliance
counterpart Nelson Chamisa at the weekend both called for unity in the country
to fight the second wave of the pandemic which is said to be the deadlier.
Critics accuse the Zanu PF leader of using the COVID-19
pandemic to close democratic space after arrests of opposition MDC Alliance
party vice-president Tendai Biti, spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, vice-chairperson
Job Sikhala and Harare mayor Jacob Mafume. Newsday
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