Zimpapers Logo

Clever Chirume Correspondent
A characteristic of the current Covid-19 global crisis is the acceleration of history towards an ideal world.

The notion of “international community” is under siege proving to be “aspirational” and applying only to a few aspects of geopolitics.

Both mighty and weaker nations have  been ravaged by Covid-19.

What is disturbing has been the lack of what can be described as meaningful global response. Newton’s law — that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction-has apparently been suspended.

The near irrelevance of World Health Organisation (WHO) that should have been at the centre of directing events about the scourge globally, points to the fact that weaker nations have to think twice about the state of global governance.

The fading influence of US leadership is a further characteristic of the Covid-19 crisis.

A new global order is emerging.

China is assuming ascendancy to fill the global leadership void.

The “proverbial subaltern” Cuba is providing the world solutions concerning the management of Covid-19.

Cuban doctors are the most sought after in the hardest hit countries, such as Italy.

Both strong and weak countries are searching for local solutions only turning for assistance to those countries such as China who have gone past the peak of Covid-19                              infection.

For the first time the country’s universities and colleges are manufacturing the preventative utensils and detergents, which until recently, we have been importing using scarce foreign currency.

This positive initiative by our universities has revealed a faulty pricing structure in which the private sector could not justify the exorbitant prices of sanitisers which are now being produced at reasonable cost at the country’s universities.

The question is how much more has society been fleeced by a people who name the price of their goods with the US dollar in mind.

One thing clear is that the real threat is not the pandemic, but how a people choose to deal with it.

For Zimbabwe, Covid-19 presents a ray of light. The pandemic offers a new way of handling national calamities.

In a refreshing view, President Mnangagwa observes that the Covid-19 crisis has made us to rethink ourselves as a people.

He marvelled at the synergies emerging between the public and private sector in the effort to combat the scourge — the grim reaper of lives. This new phenomenon if sustained into the post Covid-19 era will positively impact the economy.

President Mnangagwa further observes that one hopes “Government and private sector should continue working together in tapping the large pool local skills and expertise to develop the country”.

He had been impressed by the quality of the local response to Covid-19.

Further, there is the realisation of how Zimbabwe can break out of the endless cycle of consumption. The questions to ask beyond the current lockdown occasioned by Covid-19, is whether we need not to rationalise on foreign travel which have chewed billions in fuel bills.

Can we not leverage on local talent in our universities towards the manufacturing of the basic necessities rather than watch the institutions sink as ivory towers?

Should we not be seriously considering the reconfiguration of the workplace in the face of digitisation? Why not let some people work from home? Should we continue to have a centralised market such as Mbare Musika?

These questions are critical from now going forward.

As a country, we need to learn from the Cuban and Chinese doctors’ tenacity in combating Covid-19.

The Cuban emphasis is on prevention. For they know too well their economy cannot absorb the costs of treatment. Prevention is indeed the way to go for nations such as Zimbabwe without the necessary financial muscle to fight the scourge, hence the decision by the country’s leadership to lock down the country despite the fragility of the economy.

As we go through what by every measure is a great crisis, it is natural to assume that it will be a turning point for Zimbabwe.

Clever Chirume is an academic, author and freelance writer.