President Mnangagwa shines at regional summit over impressive vaccination roll-out statistics

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa was a shining star during the recent Sadc summit held in Lilongwe, Malawi over the impressive results his country has registered in battling the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

Mnangagwa told the just-ended summit how his country has managed to raise locally a whopping $100 million to buy vaccines.

The president further said, currently, Zimbabwe has acquired 12.5 million vaccines and the target is to inoculate around 12 million citizens to attain herd immunity.

“Zimbabwe has accelerated the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out programme with pleasing results and increased vaccine demand. To date, the Government has sourced and purchased 12,5 million doses of vaccines. To widen vaccine administration, increase vaccine access and improve convenience to the inoculating public, my Government made a deliberate decision to allow private sector participation in the process to complement public health institutions,” said President Mnangagwa at the summit which ended on August 18.

Apart from the $100 million for vaccines, Zimbabwe has also managed to raise around $300 million for risk allowances for frontline workers, upgrading health facilities, as well as drugs and PPE.

Part of the $300 million, according to Treasury Department records, has also gone to security apparatus for lockdowns enforcement.

President Mnangagwa's strategy in combating the pandemic has so far been lauded by citizens as well as World Health Organisation and the Centre for Diseases Control Africa.

His sworn critics had braced for the pandemic to wipe out the population due to what they thought would be a total collapse of the health system.

All this is happening at a time when the country's economy has been strangled by satanic sanctions for over two decades at the hands of powerful tyrannical forces in the West in collusion with opposition puppets in Zimbabwe.

Despite the strangling sanctions, President Mnangagwa's government has been able to realign the economic trajectory and Zimbabwe in the last financial year managed to raise locally $2.2 billion through revenue collections.