InfocusNews 31 Jan - 4 Feb 2022
manned by at least 10 nurses but now we have one nurse working flat out to attend to patients without medication and PPE. The Government should act fast before our health system crumbles and lives are lost unnecessarily,” added Dongo.
Mass Exodus of nurses leaves millions at risk
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IMBABWE is sitting on a health time bomb following the mass exodus of healthcare workers especially nurses who have resigned leaving millions without access to qualified personnel. Besides the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe has a huge disease burden which has been worsened by the global pandemic. As of Tuesday, Zimbabwe had 229 851 confirmed cases, including 219 776 recoveries and 5 350 deaths. Statistics from the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) show that more than 2 000 nurses resigned in the country last year, up from 500 recorded in 2020.
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ZINA President Enock Dongo said the Government may be ignoring these mass resignations but soon the healthcare sector will crumble. He said the nurses were resigning daily as their welfare was not catered for forcing those who have remained to work extra hard in public health institutions. “Our members continue to resign in numbers and soon effects will be felt when the healthcare system crumbles. More than 2 500 nurses have resigned since 2020 and considering that we have always had a shortage of nurses in our institutions, those who remain now have pressure to deliver under difficult conditions,” he said. “Normally, a ward should be
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Health Services Board Directors, Dr Paulinus Sikosana said the shortage of critical skills still persisted in the sector despite invitations for retired nurses to re-join the service as the sector is generally perceived to be unattractive, especially by skilled and experienced staff. One of the nurses, Nomalanga Mhlanga who recently resigned said the working conditions were worsening while the Government was not acting. “We have been gagged and threatened before which makes it so difficult to raise issues. Personally, I realized that I would rather suffer and work hard in the United Kingdom knowing that my salary will be enough to meet all the needs back home,” she said. “We were treated unfairly and that killed all the passion we had to save lives back home hence we decided to go for greener pastures and work where we will be valued.” Another nurse, Mpilo Ndlovu said the situation in hospitals is scary
InfocusNews and one day people are going to die in numbers as there will be no nurse to attend to them. “I used to man one ward for 24 hours continuously as some of my colleagues had resigned and relo-
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cated. The responsible authority did not take action to at least ease the pressure but they all pretended that it is all normal,” he said. “Nowadays it’s difficult to raise concerns in such an unfavourable environment. There are no drugs
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and the equipment is down but all we hear is that the Government is working hard to keep healthcare workers happy. We will soon feel the effects and unfortunately it is the ordinary people who will suffer more”
InfocusNews read Council minutes. Residents welcomed the move by Council but however said a clinic and additional schools would improve their livelihoods compared to courts.
Cowdray Park Magistrates Court: An anticipated development
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ULAWAYO’s biggest suburb, Cowdray Park is set to have its own Magistrates court to cater for more 45 000 residents who are forced to travel long distances to access judicial services. The developing suburb is one of the biggest in the city with over 33 000 housing stands and according to the 2012 census, Cowdray Park had a population of 45 114 people. Cowdray Park is a relatively fast-growing high-density suburb that borders Nyamandlovu in the West, Norwood suburb in the North, Richmond to the East and Luveve-Emakhandeni to the South. The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has been allocated land by the local authority to establish two magistrates’ courts in the suburb. Speaking during a full Council
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meeting, on Wednesday, Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni commended the decision made by the town planning committee adding that the court will make justice services easily accessible. “I would like to commend the decision made by this Committee to embrace high impact projects. The Magistrate’s Court will change the lives of the people of Bulawayo by reducing the distance they are going to travel to access justice,” Cllr Mguni said Acting Director of Town Planning, Wisdom Siziba reported to the Committee that Council had resolved to sell a stand to JSC to establish a Magistrate’s Court. “Council has resolved to sell Stand 26559 Cowdray Park measuring 1974m² as depicted on diagram TPA 9785 to the Judicial Service Commission to establish a Magistrate’s Court in Cowdray Park,”
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“We need a hospital that will cater for our growing number because we still go to Luveve whenever in need of healthcare services. The court is important to some extent but all we need are more schools and even clinics before we have courts,” said Andile Moyo. “Our road network is very poor therefore having a court is the least of our worries, we need other important services that will ensure we stay away from crime like schools and business centers to create employment for our people.” For Musawethu Siziba, the new court must be established after Council has addressed service delivery issues in Cowdray Park. “It is a noble idea but will only be relevant after we have resolved issues to do with running water, toilets, roads and more schools, justice is a secondary issue and not that urgent,” she said.
“Our road network is very poor therefore having a court is the least of our worries...”
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Electoral Information Blitz
and when.” Dibiti said focus was on Constituencies such as Njube-Lobengula, Magwegwe, and Mpopoma-Pelandaba as they are considered to have the least number of voters,” said Mr Dibiti. He said the best strategy to get members of the public to register to vote is to directly engage them as messages communicated especially via social media platforms are not trusted.
ZEC Commissions BVR Blitz across the country
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mobile voter registration blitz as it will determine Constituency sizes per Province in the 2023 harmonised elections and beyond.
The electoral body employed nearly 2 000 people to conduct voter registration education and assist the public as they register to vote in preparation of the March 26 by-elections and the 2023 harmonised elections.
Ekhaya Vote Spokesperson, Mr Nkosikhona Dibiti said they have intensified campaigns on the ground to educate the public about the voter registration exercise. “What we have observed is that most people are not aware of this exercise. So, what we are going to be doing is that we are going to synchronise our campaigns with the ZEC programme,” he said.
Phase one of the ongoing BVR blitz runs from 1 February to 28 February while the second phase of the blitz is slated to run between 11 April and 30 April. Unregistered voters have been urged to take advantage of the
“We are going to work with Residents’ Associations, vendors, and women’s rights groups to mobilise more people to register to vote. ZEC has already provided us with material to distribute to communities informing where it would be
HE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Wednesday set in motion a voter registration blitz across the country which saw only a handful of members of the public flocking to the 2 7000 centers which were set up.
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For Ruth Moyo, the blitz was not publicized a lot hence the low turnout as people were not aware that ZEC is conducting mass voter registration drive. “I personally didn’t know that there was an exercise like this and I blame ZEC, they did not conduct enough awareness campaigns to have us motivated to go and register to vote as Bulawayo youths,” she said. For Oabile Dube from Gwanda, people in Matabeleland Region are likely to lose Constituencies as they do not have identity cards to participate in the ongoing voter registration blitz. “The other stumbling block is that a majority of us do not have identity cards so we could go to the centers which ZEC set up. We cannot be blamed for low turnout but the Government should first ensure we have IDs before rolling out such programs which they claim are for our benefit,” she added.
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Prioritise Voter Registrations to save Constituencies
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ULAWAYO citizens have been encouraged to prioritise voter registration as opposed to the candidates, either at Local Authority and National Assembly they will vote for in the soon to be held 2023 harmonised elections. These sentiments were shared by the Executive Director at The Girls Table, Samkeliso Tshuma who was speaking during a radio discussion that was broadcast on Skyz Metro FM. In her view, citizens ought to worry more about saving Constituencies as she cited as it being what is currently at stake. “I would like to urge the citizens of Bulawayo to make priority towards registering to vote as opposed to choosing the candidate of choice to vote for in the 2023 harmonised elections,” added Samkeliso Tshuma. “Right now, our concern is in saving the Constituencies more than anything else. Once you register to vote it becomes easier for the Constituencies to be saved and not risk being lost once delimitation starts taking place.”
put in place to serve the concerns raised by citizens over the centralized location of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) District Offices.
Tshuma stated that communities ought to focus on what is important and register to vote. She encouraged citizens to utilize the ongoing Mobile Biometric Voter Registration Blitz that has been
“The Blitz has been put in place in a way that enables citizens to register at an area close to them,” added Tshuma. “For those in the Central Business District (CBD), they can make use of the registration cen-
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tres in Msitheli and City Hall.” Asked whether or not citizens can check for their names on the voters’ roll in these decentralized registration centres, Tshuma cited that information can be availed once clarity has been made with ZEC. “It is always good to send verified information and that can be
Electoral Information Blitz done once our concerns are made known with ZEC,” said Tshuma. Latoya Maseko, a Gender Activist who resides in Pumula cited an existence of an information gap relating to voter registration. “Youths are not aware of the blitz
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that is ongoing as they have told themselves that such information on electoral processes hardly is of concern to them,” added Maseko. “Organisations that offer voter education have a lot of work in ensuring that they help communities
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in gaining knowledge about the voter registration exercise.” Maseko further encouraged young people to take up the space and ensure their voices are heard in electoral processes.
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