Covid-19 vaccination roadmap a must

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s controversial announcement that Zimbabwe will sell Covid-19 vaccines to the rest of the population — although quickly repudiated by the highest office in the land — exposed the government’s lack of a strategy to deal with the pandemic.

Ncube is the man in charge of the country’s finances and he definitely knew what he was talking about.

The Finance minister probably spoke after assessing Treasury’s purse and he was convinced Zimbabwe had no capacity to vaccinate its population for free.

Both President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga were forced to humiliate Ncube with a public slapdown to cover their political bases.

A day after Ncube’s announcement, Mnangagwa and Chiwenga made public announcements that all Zimbabweans who wanted to be vaccinated would be inoculated for free.

The Finance minister had to issue a retraction, tail in between legs, claiming that his statements made through the state-controlled Zimpapers television channel were taken out of context.

Damage, however, had already been done. The drama did little to re-assure an already jittery nation that is unsure about the government’s plan to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Throughout the world, mass vaccinations have been identified as the only route back to normalcy for economies that have been frozen by over a year of lockdowns.

Other countries have laid out clear strategies on how they will vaccinate their citizens to achieve herd immunity, which will allow them to re-open their economies.

In Zimbabwe, there is no evidence of a clear strategy to get out of the lockdowns and the confusion that played out after Ncube’s statement is proof that there is no forward planning.

By now Zimbabwe must be clear about which vaccines it is approving for use and the government must be placing the orders as well as putting the logistics in place.

A day after he was slapped on the wrist by Mnangagwa and Chiwenga, Ncube yesterday came out with a begging bowl seeking to raise money to buy the vaccines.

The inertia is mind-boggling.

The government knew several months ago that it would need money to buy vaccines, which it did not have, but chose to do nothing.

Zimbabwe is also yet to sign up to the Covax facility, the global initiative aimed at equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, for reasons best known to the government mandarins.

Again delays will ensure that Zimbabwe is at back of the queue while Covid-19 continues to cause havoc among the vulnerable members of society.

Zimbabwe is in desperate need of leadership in tackling Covid-19 with clear plans and timelines to get interventions that will protect the population against more infections, including vaccinations.