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Stephen Mpofu
A sudden, rampant surge in coronavirus infections in Zimbabwe must be seen by all as a pointer to something, or things having gone terribly wrong in the way Zimbabweans police their own health.

One thing for sure, according to a high-ranking political figure, is that omalayitsha — Zimbabweans transporting goods from such highly coronavirus-infected countries as South Africa — are believed to have flooded markets in our country with coronavirus-contaminated clothing of dead people at the behest of get-rich merchants including themselves.

The contaminated items of clothing have apparently found a ready market for cheaper second hand clothes in the wake of rampant increases in prices of clothes and other items in Zimbabwean shops, which have left low-income earners opting for cheaper second-hand clothing, unfortunately without knowing that some of the garments belonged to people who succumbed to the virus.

This newspaper has repeatedly published stories by reporters and by this columnist about Zimbabwean traders bribing security on both the Zimbabwean and South African sides of the border to look the other way as they did brisk business through illegal crossing points along the Limpopo River.

That the cities of Bulawayo, Gweru and Harare have reportedly become Covid-19 hotspots should therefore take no one by surprise as concentrated populations in those cities are viewed by the hawkers of the infected items of clothing as lucrative markets for the cheaper second hand items of clothing and other goods from across our borders.

The political figure who blamed the omalayitsha for worsening Covid-19 infections in Zimbabwe, but who may not be named for protecting his family from possible reprisals by those he blamed for peddling diseased clothes of dead people, abated by an obsession with pecuniary love.

The measures in question obviously suggest a ban on second-hand clothes whose sources are suspect in order to protect our people from the rampaging coronavirus.

In Bulawayo, the suburbs of Cowdray Park, Emganwini, Nkulumane and Magwegwe West have been identified as having the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the city.

Tragically ironic, however, residents in the beleaguered suburbs in question are daily reported to be flouting lockdown regulations with impunity which might be due to ignorance about the deadliness of Covid-19 and/or their dare-devil defiance of laid-down government regulations against the spread of the killer virus.

The Government has said it would tighten up lockdown measures in the urban centres with the worst Covid-19 infections.

This writer believes that it would be more prudent for the powers that be to include educational campaigns among tighter control measures to be implemented.

People are, for instance, reported to be consuming beer at home, in cars and wherever it suits their reverie, without taking cognisance of the danger to which they expose themselves with alcohol.

The World Health Organisation, hapless as it grapples with the escalating global Covid-19 pandemic, has warned loudly and clearly that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of catching Covid-19 as the immune system is weakened by alcohol.

It therefore stands to reason that educational campaigns in which residents associations in all urban centres play an active role in raising awareness among their members and other people elsewhere in life about the graves dug by coronavirus and into which they blissfully risk walk, blinded by their blatant ignorance.