The time bomb is ticking

Stephen Mpofu

Zimbabwe may be, nay, is sitting on a time-bomb set to explode without warning affecting villages dotted along the country’s southern border line and scattering an economy already rendered wobbly by illegal Western sanctions.

When news of the Covid-19 world pandemic spread to Africa and to our country in March this year and Government announced a lockdown, as did other countries, we warned in these same columns that porous borders that Zimbabwe shared with other African states posed a serious risk with the possibility of people infected with coronavirus returning home through illegal crossing points across the Limpopo, in particular.

Soon after and much later, people in Chiredzi expressed fears about possible importation of Covid-19 by people crossing illegally into the country through the Sango border area from South Africa, which has the highest Covid-19 cases in Africa.

Not only that. Recently Vice-President Kembo Mohadi who leads the country’s task force to tackle the pandemic, urged people to take Covid-19 seriously, saying if people are allowed through the porous borderline, Zimbabwe was likely to suffer the consequences since the country was not well-equipped to fight the scourge.

Tragically, however, business as usual remains the order of things as reported by this newspaper on Monday this week.

An investigative Chronicle crew discovered last weekend on a tour along the Limpopo river that smuggling syndicates daily operated with impunity between Zimbabwe and South Africa, ferrying goods across the Limpopo river on hired inflatable boats to and fro for varying fees ranging from R150 to R500 apparently under the noses of security forces.

By avoiding the use of the official Beitbridge border post, the smugglers obviously prejudice this country of millions of dollars in unpaid duty for their goods.

Add to the illegal trade Zimbabweans who may carry the coronavirus returning home through the bush tracks and the authorities in our country may be faced with a gargantuan task in their efforts to curb the spread of the virus which has left in its wake thousands upon thousands of people dead overseas as well as on the African continent.

Why, for instance, has the army or the police force or both those security forces, not been deployed to seal off the crossing points on the Zimbabwean side even if South Africa or Botswana leave their borders open?

As things stand there has recently been a dramatic increase of positive coronavirus cases in Zimbabwe from 56 to 149 within a few days, the majority of these being returnees from South Africa and Botswana quarantined on arrival here.

There is therefore a strong case for people — security personnel, traders and villagers — with superlative rather than porous patriotism and insular to corruption operating and living along our borders to guarantee security in our region; otherwise enemies of the ANC government in South Africa and of Zimbabwe under Zanu-PF might exploit laxities along our borders and infiltrate agents armed with weapons of mass destruction to cause havoc in both countries, witness armed infidels now destabilising neighbouring Mozambique at the behest of enemies of the Frelimo government.

In Zimbabwe’s northern neighbour, Zambia, many more positive cases of the coronavirus have been reported with a Cabinet minister there among the affected persons. This situation also suggests that travellers from that country — which hosts many, many people who migrated and settled there during the federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia as one country, and Nyasaland should be thoroughly monitored on arrival in this country.

If the chaotic situation along our southern borders continues to be regarded by some as nothing but some kind of make-believe, returnees from neighbouring countries through undesignated crossing points will, at least many of them, proceed to urban areas to look for work and complicate measures the Government is taking to control the spread of the virus in addition to worsening the unemployment in these areas.

This might lead to crime as the loafers try to make ends meet.

The bottom line in the above discourse is that peace-loving and law-abiding citizens should spare nothing in their support of the many and commendable measures that our Government is taking to protect lives and have the economy revived to feed our people in order for peace, stability and security for the whole nation to prevail.

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