Teachers, who make up the majority of the workers in the public service, are already on an indefinite leave after government directed schools and tertiary institutions to close on March 24th. I am just praying something will come up mid-way, or else me and my wife and kids, we will die of hunger.” ( © AFP 30/3 2020)Ĭivil Servants to Rotate Duty Shifts: Civil servants will now rotate duty shifts starting March 27th after President Mnangagwa ordered all government employees to take turns to report for duty as the state begins to take measures to reduce contact among the population. “Food is now expensive in Zimbabwe and money is hard to come by.” “We only had the weekend to set aside food for 21 days,” said Moyo. Kelvin Moyo, an informal trader from Bulawayo's Entumbane township, complained about the short notice given to prepare for the lockdown. In second city Bulawayo, located in the southwest, police on horseback and others on bicycles were dispersing people at marketplaces. I can't afford to feed my family here when I am not working,” said Most Jawure. “We would rather spend the 21 days at our rural home, where we don't have to buy everything. “Everyone to their homes.” Police in riot gear dispersed people standing in small groups at the Copacabana minibus terminus, which is usually abuzz with people including foreign currency dealers.įor many of the country's 16m people, who are already suffering a grim economic recession, the lockdown means even tougher hardship. Some in Harare were trying to leave the city for rural villages. We don't want to see people who have no business in town just loitering,” a policewoman said through a loud hailer. “We don't want to see people here on the streets. Elsewhere, truckloads of metropolitan and national police armed with batons were on patrol, ordering people back to their homes.

Police mounted checkpoints on routes leading to Harare's central business district, stopping cars and turning away pedestrians who had no authorisation to be in the area. President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared a 21-day “total” lockdown from March 30th curtailing movement within the country, shutting most shops and suspending flights in and out of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean authorities on March 30th began enforcing a three-week lockdown in its fight against the spread of Covid-19. He said that he was happy that SADC is setting up a fact-finding mission on Eswatini and on its decision to send a panel of elders “to go and find effective ways to deal with the situation”.Police patrol streets as a countrywide shutdown begins. The President is also pleased with SADC’s recorded progress on issues in the Kingdom of Eswatini and on challenges in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We will be able to bring around the various assistance measures when there are either situations where our armed forces needs to intervene, so there should be a good logistics depot or where there are other forms of emergency,” President Ramaphosa said regarding the logistics centre. He said he was also pleased with progress made in the already operational anti-terrorism centre that is situated in the Republic of Tanzania. President Ramaphosa said he was also pleased with progress brought about by SADC in the setting up of its Logistics Centre in the Republic of Botswana which will assist the countries in the region to deal with emergency situations. “The pleasing thing was that the people who had fled the various areas in Cabo Delgado are now returning to their homes, with increased confidence that SADC has been helping them to bring about peace.” In a statement, the President said that SADC was also pleased with progress made in pushing back the insurgents in the Cabo Delgado area of the Republic of Mozambique and that SADC reaffirmed its “total commitment to supporting the people of Mozambique”. SADC and South Africa played an important role in bringing about peace and normalcy in the Kingdom of Lesotho. On the reform process in the Kingdom of Lesotho, President Ramaphosa said he was pleased with the positive report tabled by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro that serves as a real milestone in the lives of the Basotho. Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, and Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Thabang Makwetla, accompanied the President on the visit.

Tanzania total lockdown