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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The novel coronavirus (Covid19) pandemic has adversely affected hundreds of Zimbabweans based in South Africa who rely on cross border transporters commonly known as omalaitsha for collection of medication for chronic diseases.

Sadc countries, South Africa and Zimbabwe included have closed their borders to none essential human traffic leaving only commercial cargo to cross the borders.

Those in South Africa who used to send people to collect their medication for hypertension, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis are not able to do so under the lockdown conditions.

Although the exact figure of those affected could not be readily established it is believed that they could run into thousands considering the high level of labour migration between the two countries.

At least 300 000 are in South Africa on the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) while others are there on less formal arrangements either as visitors or informal traders.

The Zimbabwe Community in South Africa (ZimmCommSA) said yesterday that it had sent out messages to various stakeholders in the neighbouring country to assist their compatriots to access medications for chronic diseases.

“We have sent out word about their plight and we encourage those seeking medication, especially for chronic diseases to approach their nearest health facilities for assistance,” said the organisation’s spokesperson, Mr Bongani Mazwi Mkwananzi.

It is estimated that close to seven million people are living with HIV/Aids in the neighbouring country were the prevalence rate is between 13 and 20 percent.
Additionally, Pretoria is battling to meet the needs of its own citizens making it relatively difficult to meet the needs of migrants informally in that country.

According to Beitbridge district medical officer, Dr Lenos Samhere they were helping many returnees from South Africa to refill their medication upon arrival.
He said between 1 April and 16 June they had attended to 129 people at the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) hotel who suffer from various chronic sicknesses.

“During the period under review we attended to 41 patients seeking medication for Hypertension, nine for diabetes mellitus and 57 for Anti-Retroviral drugs,” said Dr Samhere.

“Several others had other conditions including heart problems, asthma, stroke, TB, Kaposi Sarcoma, mental illness and anxiety disorders.

“We also handled one delivery after attending to four pregnant women and we also admitted two people one for TB and another for HIV/Aids while the third had CCF (Heart problem).”

The DMO said though they had medication for most ailments, their stocks were now dwindling considering that it was cumbersome for most countries to import health consumables under the current pandemic.

Since opening in April, the Beitbridge Quarantine and Isolation centre has received 4326 Zimbabweans from South Africa who have been transported to various provincial quarantine centres by the Government.

The centre has a carrying capacity of 150 under mandatory quarantine and currently has 29 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in isolation, while 75 others are in quarantine.