Urban versus rural discrepancies in terms of compliance to rules and regulations pertaining to curbing of the spread of Covid-19 pandemic Rodgers Alfred Nikita Mangena

Pathisa Nyathi
Last week we indicated how the community at Sankonjana got to know about Covid-19 and we did observe that it was through Plan International, Caritas and the Salvation Army’s Tshelanyemba Hospital. Yet the other two sources of Covid-19 information dissemination were radio stations, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation(ZBC) and Studio 7 beaming from Washington in the United States of America .

I was interested to know about the various community gatherings that might spread the coronavirus. Water in the community is obtained from quite a number of boreholes. Several scotch carts laden with 20 or 25-litre plastic containers are pulled by a team of four donkeys.

The energetic youths drive the scotch carts which race through the rough roads, much to the chagrin of the owners of the scotch carts who have to foot the repair bills. The boreholes are hand pumped and sometimes three or even four persons hold the long iron handle which they work rhythmically up and down with youthful gusto. The youthful balls of energy are not responsible for the repairs when the overspeeding get a some demobilising knock. The same applies when the borehole pumps malfunction.

The elongated robust iron is a potential source for the spread of the coronavirus. Four or so pairs of unprotected hands work the pump. Any coronavirus virus left on the handle is likely to contaminate the hands of those handling the pump.

After that there is a chance of the virus being introduced to the affected individuals’ homes. Those who work the pump do not observe social distancing, nor do they wear face masks. The expression that I captured was “Siphel’ umoya.” We run short of breath. At Kezi (Kgetsi) I overheard a man scream at the top of his piercingly shrill voice from a shop verandah, “Now it’s hot we are no longer going to putting on face masks!”

A death had occurred at one of the homesteads. It became patently clear that the social and cultural imperatives attending funerary practices hold sway within the community. Death brings together members of a community into a co-operating social unit. A bereaved family gets moral, material and financial support needed during bereavement and burial. Where, in particular, there is abject poverty, affected families go through torrid times to bury their relatives. It is in such situations that some families fall back on the broader social networks though which they receive the much needed support at this time of their greatest need.

Traditional Africa never perceived a corpse as a lifeless mass of flesh and bones -a thing. The inherent spiritual dimension renders continuing life. Relatives keep a night long vigil. This apparently is against what the community was advised to do when death has struck at these times when coronavirus is running amok.

Neighbours and close relatives spend the night where death had occurred and remain there until after interment. Cooking, which they were advised not to undertake at the homestead of the bereaved, did take place. Besides, social distancing was not observed. Those who might wish or try to do that may be misconstrued as being anti-social, proud and inconsiderate. Community and social solidarity are expressed through various ways including sitting and sleeping in close proximity — the physical expression of a socially emotional phenomenon.

After death, do the living bid farewell to their dead? The dead are dead and have no consciousness of any sort. But this is not the way Africans used to perceive death. The dead have a living component (the spirit) which continues to maintain links with its counterpart, the physical remains, or body where it was once housed. On this basis the living bid farewell not to the corpse but the living spirit which has or is about to begin a journey to the spiritual realm. It is for this reason that during interment the relatives bid farewell during the ritual when “dust returns to dust” while the eternally living spirit goes its own way.

It becomes clear that death is attended by a worldview which demands certain cultural practices which are difficult to abandon. Beliefs die but slowly.

Death, by virtue of its attended beliefs, emotional torment and transition from transience to eternity demands that a myriad of rituals, ceremonies and cultural practices attend it. Then my return journey to the city of water shortages began. The first stopover was at Sun Yet Sen which has a police station and a business centre.

The area is characterised by the presence of gold deposits which have attracted several small scale miners, omakorokoza. The gold deposits which stretch to Legion Mine (Gatsane) where Tiny Rowland of Lonrho once operated a mine. I saw a few people, mostly those coming from the urban areas wearing face masks. Wearing of face masks was clearly not a culture that was embraced in the area.

Maphisa, now a town, was different from what I had observed further to the south. My first port of call was the Matobo Rural District Council (MRDC) offices. I wanted to pay for the annual charges for both Amagugu International Heritage Centre and the Mpondweni Plot.

I had on me the biography of the late ZPRA commander Rodgers Alfred Nikita Mangena which I wanted to give to the CEO. He was not there, having proceeded on leave.

I therefore went to the next office where there were four council officers sharing an office. Lizwe Mpabanga Nyathi seemed the most senior of the lot. Here was a perfect example of adherence to the recommended measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Social distancing was strictly observed through the manner in which the working desks were located in relation to each other. Further, all the officers wore face masks which were properly positioned.

From the council I ventured out to get a feel of the other spots at Maphisa. It was a mixed bag. There were people who were not wearing face masks and a few that did. Certainly, the picture that emerged was less than what one finds in Bulawayo. I began asking myself what it is that accounts for the big difference in the adoption of recommended measures to quell the spread of coronavirus. Is it voluntary or involuntary behaviour?

At Whitewater I had a stopover at Amagugu International Heritage Centre. There were four workers at the Centre all properly wearing their face masks. Further, they were in observance of social distancing.

I thought they were alert to their periodic dealings with school children and at times with the tourists. Elsewhere I did not meet with similar adherence to the SI 83 of 2020 stipulations regarding the rules and regulations pertaining to government-recommended measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

I learnt something. There are glaring discrepancies in the manner the rules and regulations are adopted between rural and urban centres. The rural areas seem lax and not very serious in the way they conduct themselves in relation to the recommendations regarding the curbing of the spread of the coronavirus.

Partly this is explained by the few cases of deaths that they link to the coronavirus. This is not the same in urban areas where information dissemination is conducted more rigorously. There is a higher concentration of the NGOs that work in the field of information dissemination.

Police presence is a factor in the enforcement of adherence to rules and regulations. During the colonial period the police in urban areas were looked upon to implement the various laws applicable to the Africans who were regarded as temporary sojourners. In the towns the Africans were not allowed to walk on street pavements.

They were also expected to keep to their sections of the towns and buy from stores in areas designated for that. The police enforced the colour bar. To keep the Africans in the small and straight paths the police became a handy tool for enforcement.

The question is how effective and sustainable is externally enforced compliance? I have always argued that there is no police force in the world that is more effective in terms of enforcing compliance than internal conviction.

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