Temba Mliswa organised COVID-19 taskforce receives donations to fight pandemic in Norton | Spiked.co.zw

Member of the National Assembly for Norton, Temba Mliswa set up a constituency taskforce to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and on Saturday pooled donations from the stakeholders led by tile manufacturer Sunny Yi Feng Tiles Zimbabwe.

San Yi Feng Tiles Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd donated towards the fight against COVID-19

“What we have done is to complement the government’s effort in ensuring that we combat COVID-19 together. At this point in time, there is no need for the blame game. This is a pandemic not only in Zimbabwe but globally,” Hon. Mliswa said.

The legislator reiterated the fact that there is no individual government nor health institution that can effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic single-handedly hence the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration.

“There is a need to comply with the 21-day lockdown pronounced by President Mnangagwa. In that regard, I implore everyone to comply with the call to stay home in order to avoid the spread of coronavirus. The best thing is to comply.

“The police on the frontline must be supported. We have given protective gear to the police in Norton who will be on national duty as well as the nurses and doctors on the frontline were also given the necessary resources to prevent the spread. They are prone to the pandemic or spreading it to other people or their families back home. We gave them thousands of face-masks donated by the Chinhoyi University of Technology. We applaud the risk that they take because they do it on our behalf. We shall also be giving them fuel,” the legislator said.

He applauded the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Amon Murwira for turning universities into innovation hubs. In that regard, the Harare Institute of Technology will provide ventilators.

The government waived duty on equipment to fight COVID-19 but globally, the pandemic has hit hard on the traditional donor countries like Britain, the USA, and Italy.

Hon. Mliswa said, in this case, Zimbabwe should rely on local scientists for home-grown solutions. He made a passionate appeal to other corporates to invest in the fight against COVID-19 because without the workers they can not maximise profit.

National lockdown details

4. (1) Subject to this order, for the period of 21 days from the 30th March 2020, to the 19th April, 2020—

(a) every individual is conﬁned to his or her home and may not leave therefrom except temporarily for the following purposes (not more than one person per household shall leave home for any one of these purposes of subparagraph (i), (ii) or (iv), except in exceptional cases demonstrated to an enforcement ofﬁcer under subsection (2)—

(i) to buy basic necessities at a supermarket or food retail store, or fuel or gas at a fuel or gas retail outlet, within a radius not exceeding ﬁve (5) kilometres from his or her home (unless there is no such shop or outlet within that radius, or such shop or outlet is closed for business, in which case he or she may go to the nearest such shop from his or her home);

(ii) to buy medicine at the establishment of a pharmaceutical chemist within a radius not exceeding ﬁve (5) kilometres from his or her home (unless there is no such establishment within that radius or the needed medicine is not available there, in which case he or she may go to the nearest such establishment from his or her home);

(iii) if the individual is employed in an essential service, to go to and from his or her place of employment and go about the business of that essential service;

(iv) to obtain medical assistance on his or her own behalf or on behalf of anyone to whom he or she is related or for whom the individual has a duty of care: Provided that such assistance must be sought within a radius not exceeding ﬁve (5) kilometres from his or her home (unless it cannot be obtained within that radius, in which case he or she may obtain it from the nearest location to his or her home);

(v) to go to the home of anyone to whom he or she is related or for whom the individual has a duty of care for purpose of rendering assistance to that person for the purposes contemplated by subparagraphs (i), (ii) and (iv);

(vi) if he or she is a member of the staff of a foreign mission or agency going to or from such mission or agency;

(vii) if he or she is a citizen, resident or protected subject of a foreign country going to or from a foreign mission of the country of which he or she is the citizen, resident or subject, for the purpose of obtaining services or assistance at such mission;

(b) every restaurant shall be closed—

(i) with the exception of those restaurants attached to a hotel serving the residents thereof; or

(ii) except to the extent that a restaurant provides food for consumption off the premises for mobile delivery, or on a takeaway basis for purchase and collection by persons not covered by the national lockdown or by persons temporarily permitted to leave lockdown under this subsection: Provided that no liquor shall be sold, collected or delivered together with such food;

(c) every other business establishment shall be closed except for every business establishment providing an essential service or services in support of such a service, including but not limited to the following—

(i) pharmacies;

(ii) laboratories;

(iii) banking institutions;

(iv) payment and money transfer services;

(v) supermarkets and food retail stores;

(vi) fuel outlets;

(vii) health care providers;

(viii) transport services engaged in the carriage of staff for essential services, the carriage of sick persons to hospitals and other health care providers, and the transport of water, food, fuel, basic goods, medical supplies needed to combat COVID-19 and other medical supplies;(the above list is merely illustrative and is not intended to limit the scope of the deﬁnition of “essential service”);

Provided that manufacturing business establishments or other businesses whose operations require continuous processes may operate with the minimum staff required for the care and maintenances of its operations;

(d) every Government establishment shall be closed except to such extant as the responsible head of the Ministry or head of that establishment shall direct.

(e) every school and other educational institution (whether primary, secondary, tertiary or technical and vocational, except for institutions providing medical training or research useful for combating COVID-19) shall be closed;

(f) all intercity transport is prohibited except the operation of intercity transport services engaged in the carriage of staff for essential services, the carriage of sick persons to hospitals and other health care providers, the carriage of persons referred to in section 4(1)(a) (vi) or (vii), the transport of water, food, fuel, basic goods, medical supplies needed to combat COVID-19 and other medical supplies, and the carriage of Police, Defence Forces personnel and other enforcement ofﬁcers.

(2) Transport services, whether intracity or intercity, for the carriage of passengers shall be restricted to those provided by—

(a) the parastatal company known as the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO);

(b) omnibuses and other passenger service vehicles operated by or on behalf of the Public Service Association, the Police Service, the Defence Forces and the Civil Protection Authorities;

(c) commuter omnibuses and other passenger service vehicles operated or chartered by local authorities for the carriage of staff for essential services, the carriage of sick persons to hospitals and other health care providers, and the transport of water, food, fuel, basic goods, medical supplies needed to combat COVID-19 and other medical supplies.

(3) Every individual found outside his or her home shall have the burden of proving, to the satisfaction of an enforcement ofﬁcer, that he or she is covered by any of the exceptions listed in subsection (1) or is acting under demonstrably exceptional circumstances.

(4) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to ﬁne not exceeding level twelve or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such ﬁne and such imprisonment.

(5) Any person not covered by any of the exceptions listed in subsection (1) who is found to be in breach of the lockdown shall— (a) be charged and notiﬁed that he or she will be summoned before a court to answer that charge, and ordered to return immediately to his or her home, for which purpose an enforcement ofﬁcer may accompany him or her; or

(b) if he or she refuses to return immediately to his or her home, or has no home, or is unable to immediately return to his or her home by reason of being outside of a radius of 5 kilometres (or in the case of a person who is a driver or passenger of a vehicle, 20 kilometres) from his or her home, be treated as having escaped from any place of detention, isolation or quarantine, and accordingly may be arrested without warrant and put in any place of detention, isolation or quarantine under the terms of the principal regulations.