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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday launched a Covid-19 response video documentary that showcases the story of the country’s journey in mounting a successful fight in containing the effects of the pandemic which killed and affected millions of people globally.

The one-hour documentary titled, “Fighting the Wave: How a Nation United to Fight the Covid-19 Pandemic,” highlights several response mechanisms that include innovation measures both in terms of funding and production of Personal Protective Equipment locally.

The Government, with the help of friendly countries such as China, Russia, India, and development partners, came up with a multi-sectoral approach and developed a Comprehensive National Preparedness and Response Strategic Plan to minimise the impact and reduce risks of the pandemic.

In his keynote address in Harare yesterday, President Mnangagwa said the country was proud of its achievement, saying due to the illegal sanctions imposed by the West, Zimbabwe knew that it was largely alone in the fight.

“We are proud as a nation, to showcase the story of Zimbabwe’s journey in mounting a successful national Covid-19 response. The story must inform and inspire the future actions of our people on the importance of harnessing our unity, broad capabilities, and resources in response to emergencies, disasters, and indeed opportunities.

“The Covid-19 pandemic ignited within us, a greater sense of self-belief, ingenuity and resilience. These are traits embedded in our DNA as a people, born out of the warrior spirit and tenacity of our forefathers which saw them achieving numerous feats such as waging anti-colonial wars and constructing architectural masterpieces like the Great Zimbabwe Monument.”

He said the title of the documentary underscored that unity, harmony, love and focus were critical pillars for a people to overcome challenges as well as realise national aspirations and sustainable development.

President Mnangagwa commended stakeholders for their resilience and determination to overcome the psychological, social and economic challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This national documentary will serve as a reminder to present and future generations of the success story we collectively wrote and the heroic acts we made, against all odds during the gloomy period,” said the President.

“Allow me to recognise and pay tribute to our partners, friends and other progressive organisations, in particular the People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, India and private sector stakeholders, among many others, who came to our aid, in our time of need. Notwithstanding the successes, our memories and prayers are with the families of those of our citizens who succumbed to the pandemic.”

He chronicled how Covid-19 pandemic caused untold suffering in the country and throughout the world, with over 624 million confirmed cases and over 5,5 million deaths across the world with the African continent facing challenges due to limited access to many consumables.

“Following the declaration of Covid-19 as a global pandemic, my administration realised that, due to the illegal sanctions imposed on our country, we would be, by and large, on our own. Hence we decided to be proactive and made a bold decision to raise funds towards our national response strategy, anchored by the timely acquisition of vaccines.”

The national response strategic plan said President Mnangagwa, was to minimise the negative impacts and reduce the risks and it was multi-pronged and premised on sound public health and social measures towards preventing, containing and mitigating the pandemic in line with the World Health Organisation guidelines.

Zimbabwe has to date recorded a total of 264 215 cumulative cases, including 7 670 deaths.

He said Government implemented the National Preparedness and Response Plan deploying tenets of the Whole of Government and Society Approach, and established a National Coordination and Monitoring structure led by an Ad Hoc Cabinet Inter-Ministerial Committee cascading down to provinces, and districts incorporating all stakeholders.

“To augment our mobilisation of domestic resources to acquire and riding on science, technology and innovation, I challenged our institutions of higher and tertiary education to produce Personal Protective Equipment among other consumables. It was during that time that I also directed our Ministry responsible for Higher and Tertiary Education to champion the production of medical oxygen. To date our country is proud to have a state-of-the-art medical oxygen-producing plant at Verify Engineering in Mutare,” said President Mnangagwa.

He implored Zimbabweans to remain united by one flag and one national anthem and never to allow anything to divide them while they continue to be vigilant as the pandemic is still around.

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, the Government took several measures to enhance its capacity to efficiently and effectively deal with public health system.

“Conditions of service were also addressed, revisiting housing benefits, Covid-19 risk allowances and provision of transport. President Mnangagwa declared Covid-19 in March 2020 a national disaster which entailed that high level of coordination response shifted to the Office of the President and Cabinet leading to the creation of the Office of Chief Coordinator,” said VP Chiwenga.

Women Affairs, Community and Small to Medium Enterprises Development Dr Sithembiso Nyoni paid tribute to all stakeholders who contributed to the successful containment of the pandemic.

Unicef representative, Dr Tajudeen Oyewale commended the Government for coming up with a robust and holistic approach to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

National Covid-19 response coordinator, Dr Agness Mahomva said the idea of a documentary was conceived as a way of creating a repository of knowledge for both the present and future generation.