Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking an order to compel government to provide a COVID-19 national vaccination roll-out plan. In papers filed at the High Court, ZimRights, represented by Tendai Biti of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, wants the government to present the budget for COVID-19 vaccine before Parliament. Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga who is the Health minister, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube and President Emmerson Mnangagwa were cited as respondents. ZimRights wants the government to provide the COVID-19 national vaccination deployment plan within seven days of the High Court order. In his founding affidavit filed at the courts, ZimRights national director Dzikamai Bere stated that section 29 of the Constitution obliges the government to take all practical measures to ensure the provision of basic accessible and adequate health services throughout Zimbabwe. In the face of a ravaging pandemic that has claimed lives of over two million people globally and over 1 200 in Zimbabwe, ZimRights is calling for government to act timeously and save lives from the pandemic. “Section 29(3), in particular, obliges the state to take all preventive measures within the limits of resources available to it, including education and public awareness programmes against the spread of diseases. Section 76 obliges the State to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realisation of the right to healthcare,” Bere said. He also urged government to take a cue from other countries and take the necessary steps and a human rights-centred approach to fight coronavirus. “We are simply asking the government to lead, and save lives.” ZimRights said. “We don’t understand how anyone can fail to agree with us given the far-reaching consequences of inaction.” The World Health Organisation is urging governments to avail factual information on COVID-19 to the public. In its efforts to combat the spread of the deadly virus, ZimRights provided urgent humanitarian support to marginalised communities and institutions reaching out to over 17 000 people and 26 institutions that include rural clinics, schools, quarantine centres and correctional facilities. Follow Miriam on Twitter@FloMangwaya
A November 26 letter from the presidency asked the head of Uganda's national drug authority to 'work out a mechanism' to clear the importation of the vaccines.
China has about five COVID-19 vaccine candidates at different levels of trials. It was not clear what vaccine was being imported into Uganda.
One of the frontrunners is the Sinopharm vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates said the vaccine has 86% efficacy, citing an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials.
China has used the drug to vaccinate up to a million people under its emergency use program.
On Tuesday, Morocco said it was ordering up to 10 million doses of the vaccine.
Record cases
Uganda on Monday registered 701 new COVID-19 cases, the highest-ever daily increase, bringing its national count to 23,200.
The new cases were out of the 5,578 samples tested for the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
Tuesday's tally was 606, the second-highest ever number of new infections, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the east African country to 23,860.
Health authorities have blamed ongoing election campaigns which have drawn huge crowds for the rise in infections.
THE year 2020 was a memorable one for many reasons — both positive and negative. The COVID-19 pandemic dominated headlines across the world and changed the lives of many, but it has not been the only thing grabbing the world’s attention. The pandemic, coupled with topics including the US elections, economic fallout, coronavirus vaccine, the human rights crisis in Zimbabwe and diplomatic disputes with Western powers have meant 2020 has been one of the strangest years in recent decades. Strange times can also produce some powerful and striking statements. Our deputy business editor Kudzai Kuwaza looks at some of the most memorable ones from the past 12 months. Diplomats should not behave like thugs and Brian Nichols is a thug. — Acting Zanu PF spokesman Patrick Chinamasa castigates United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols for interfering in the country’s affairs Mr. Speaker Sir, the Minister of Finance has failed in absolute terms and must resign— Former Finance minister Tendai Biti on the tenure of current Treasury boss Mthuli Ncube. We got our independence but the white man never gave us knowledge on how to run our economy — Vice-President Kembo Mohadi in an address to Zanu PF provincial structures in Gwanda. Cumulatively, Zimbabwe’s economy could contract by between 15% and 20% during 2019 and 2020. This is a massive contraction with very serious social consequences — Mthuli Ncube in letter to international financial institutions begging for a bailout in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This coronavirus that has come are sanctions against the countries that have imposed sanctions on us. God is punishing them now and they are staying indoors now while their economy is screaming like what they did to ours by imposing sanctions on us — Zanu PF chairperson Oppah Muchinguri at a rally in Chinhoyi which caused outrage and made her the subject of ridicule. The sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2018 now provides the legal basis for the UK to impose autonomous sanctions and we are in the process of considering our approach to the future sanctions regime in Zimbabwe. — Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Overseas Territories and Sustainable Development Elizabeth Sugg speaking in the House of Lords. It is more than 40 years ago that the Union Flag was lowered, and, yet, it seems, our friends in London still regard Zimbabwe as part of their extended family — requiring constant supervision, correction and even punishment when, in their own assessment, we stray from the path they and others have chosen for us — Foreign Affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo reacting to the announcement of the possibility of further sanctions on Zimbabwe by the United Kingdom. For the so-called new dispensation, re-engagement was one of the central objectives of the government’s foreign policy but it is now really dead in the water. They are shooting themselves in the foot with a bazooka — Political analyst Eldred Masunungure’s views on the fallout between Zimbabwe and Western nations over the arrest of journalist
The mayor of Zimbabwe's capital Harare has been released on bail after a month behind bars over graft allegations, his lawyer said.
[Monitor] The world's population, years over, has been affected by a number of viral diseases such a Ebola and Influenza which, in some cases, have caused millions of deaths.
