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Covid-19, also known as Coronavirus, is supposed to be the common enemy facing the world.
ILL-EQUIPPED TO FIGHT CORONAVIRUS: Most Africans
For many countries it has become a common enemy, prompting leaders such as the United States President Donald Trump and the Government of Portugal, among other countries, to announce that those who are living in the two countries illegally will have access to Covid-19 medical services.
The message is that people are one in the battle against Coronavirus.
The South African Government thinks otherwise, which is not surprising because South Africa has a penchant for thinking differently, call it out of the box.
Once, when the HIV and AIDS pandemic had ravaged the world, especially sub-Saharan Africa, the then South African leader Thabo Mbeki publicly doubted the existence of AIDS.
Seeing is believing, they say, but the HI virus is so small that it cannot be seen with the naked eye. And because AIDS is not a disease but a condition culminating in the weakening of the immune system that opens the gate to opportunistic infections, maybe blaming Mbeki is to be at fault because AIDS is, really, not a disease.
The same cannot be said of Coronavirus, which has taken the world by surprise, by storm, has shaken the foundations of medical science. South Africa has its cases. The United Kingdom has its cases. France has its cases. Italy has its cases. Spain has its cases. The United States has its cases. China has its cases. Japan has its cases. South Korea, the star performer in this battle, still has its cases. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Egypt, Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia-- they all have Covid-19 cases.
And all these countries are pulling resources together, focusing their energies on this common and, as Trump has put it, "invisible enemy".
However, South Africa has chosen to fight two battles; one against Coronavirus and another against illegal immigrants.
Last week, South African health officials sent one Covid-19 patient to Malawi, through a bus loaded with innocent, unknowing passengers. Medical officials put a note in the Covid-19 patient's bag, to the effect that "Please observe him closely on the journey".
As it were, nobody on the bus, be it the driver or conductor, saw the message because the piece of paper that contained it was kept in the patient's back-pocket.
The passenger died close to Mwanza Border, which is a Malawian border district between Malawi and Mozambique.
A team of medical officials had to be called from Blantyre District Health Office to Mwanza Border, some 60 kilometres from Blantyre, to conduct tests on the dead passenger, who passed through borders in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique-- only for a corpse, and not living being-- to almost make it to Mwanza border in Malawi.
To date, health officials have not announced results of the tests. In other words, Malawi had its first Covid-19 death two weeks ago but, really, it is not Malawi's first Covid-19 case because the Malawian bus passenger died in Mozambique's territory.
So, maybe Chairperson of the Cabinet Committee on Covid-19, Jappie Mhango, is right to say, as he did on Tuesday, that Malawi has registered its first Covid-19 death this week.
Mozambique must claim the 'death', and own it, of the Malawian man who died two weeks ago.
South Africa adds fuel to Africa's Covid-19 fire
Back to the issue of South Africa 'exporting' Covid-19 cases to other African countries.
Even as most African countries have closed their boundaries to outsiders, perhaps taking a queue from the United States and China, South Africa has only closed its borders to those coming in-- or imposed strict quarantine measures on them-- only to open them to those it is forcing to go out.
How? The country has been chasing out illegal immigrants from Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi by the busloads.
The administration of Ceril Ramaphosa has been cracking down on those who have been staying in the Rainbow Nation without proper documents, deporting 420 people so far, according to that countries immigration department records.
These people have been deported, irrespective of their health conditions, in the past three weeks.
With plans to deport more, Malawians inclusive, the South African Government is exporting Covid-19 cases to southern African countries.
And, as they say, what goes around comes around. South Africa, as the biggest economy in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc, to which it is party, will in the end, like all SADC member states, be forced to contribute resources to the cause of health in the bloc, thereby paying for a situation it has contributed to.
But that is no solace to other SADC countries. More so because, instead of playing the one-people-in-a-globalised-world game as played by Trump and other more considerate world leaders, South Africa is still playing it soro.
South Africa has literally thrown Africa sisters and brothers in the lions-den of Coronavirus. Which is not strange, after all; South Africa imports loads of goods to Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, among other countries-- what should stop it from 'exporting' Coronavirus? Nothing.
Not even common sense!
For many countries it has become a common enemy, prompting leaders such as the United States President Donald Trump and the Government of Portugal, among other countries, to announce that those who are living in the two countries illegally will have access to Covid-19 medical services.
The message is that people are one in the battle against Coronavirus.
The South African Government thinks otherwise, which is not surprising because South Africa has a penchant for thinking differently, call it out of the box.
Once, when the HIV and AIDS pandemic had ravaged the world, especially sub-Saharan Africa, the then South African leader Thabo Mbeki publicly doubted the existence of AIDS.
Seeing is believing, they say, but the HI virus is so small that it cannot be seen with the naked eye. And because AIDS is not a disease but a condition culminating in the weakening of the immune system that opens the gate to opportunistic infections, maybe blaming Mbeki is to be at fault because AIDS is, really, not a disease.
The same cannot be said of Coronavirus, which has taken the world by surprise, by storm, has shaken the foundations of medical science. South Africa has its cases. The United Kingdom has its cases. France has its cases. Italy has its cases. Spain has its cases. The United States has its cases. China has its cases. Japan has its cases. South Korea, the star performer in this battle, still has its cases. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Egypt, Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia-- they all have Covid-19 cases.
And all these countries are pulling resources together, focusing their energies on this common and, as Trump has put it, "invisible enemy".
However, South Africa has chosen to fight two battles; one against Coronavirus and another against illegal immigrants.
Last week, South African health officials sent one Covid-19 patient to Malawi, through a bus loaded with innocent, unknowing passengers. Medical officials put a note in the Covid-19 patient's bag, to the effect that "Please observe him closely on the journey".
As it were, nobody on the bus, be it the driver or conductor, saw the message because the piece of paper that contained it was kept in the patient's back-pocket.
The passenger died close to Mwanza Border, which is a Malawian border district between Malawi and Mozambique.
A team of medical officials had to be called from Blantyre District Health Office to Mwanza Border, some 60 kilometres from Blantyre, to conduct tests on the dead passenger, who passed through borders in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique-- only for a corpse, and not living being-- to almost make it to Mwanza border in Malawi.
To date, health officials have not announced results of the tests. In other words, Malawi had its first Covid-19 death two weeks ago but, really, it is not Malawi's first Covid-19 case because the Malawian bus passenger died in Mozambique's territory.
So, maybe Chairperson of the Cabinet Committee on Covid-19, Jappie Mhango, is right to say, as he did on Tuesday, that Malawi has registered its first Covid-19 death this week.
Mozambique must claim the 'death', and own it, of the Malawian man who died two weeks ago.
South Africa adds fuel to Africa's Covid-19 fire
Back to the issue of South Africa 'exporting' Covid-19 cases to other African countries.
Even as most African countries have closed their boundaries to outsiders, perhaps taking a queue from the United States and China, South Africa has only closed its borders to those coming in-- or imposed strict quarantine measures on them-- only to open them to those it is forcing to go out.
How? The country has been chasing out illegal immigrants from Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi by the busloads.
The administration of Ceril Ramaphosa has been cracking down on those who have been staying in the Rainbow Nation without proper documents, deporting 420 people so far, according to that countries immigration department records.
These people have been deported, irrespective of their health conditions, in the past three weeks.
With plans to deport more, Malawians inclusive, the South African Government is exporting Covid-19 cases to southern African countries.
And, as they say, what goes around comes around. South Africa, as the biggest economy in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc, to which it is party, will in the end, like all SADC member states, be forced to contribute resources to the cause of health in the bloc, thereby paying for a situation it has contributed to.
But that is no solace to other SADC countries. More so because, instead of playing the one-people-in-a-globalised-world game as played by Trump and other more considerate world leaders, South Africa is still playing it soro.
South Africa has literally thrown Africa sisters and brothers in the lions-den of Coronavirus. Which is not strange, after all; South Africa imports loads of goods to Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, among other countries-- what should stop it from 'exporting' Coronavirus? Nothing.
Not even common sense!
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