While many governments are waging ambitious campaigns to persuade people to get vaccinated against Covid, the Zimbabwe president has taken it a step further by threatening to punish those who do not take the doses offered.
“You will not be forced to be vaccinated, but the time will come when those who have not been vaccinated will not get jobs,” said President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday.
Even something as simple as taking a local bus will be prohibited for those who are not vaccinated, he said.
The threats come at a time when the country of 15 million people is struggling to guarantee doses for people who want to be immunized.
Zimbabwe has received a donation of 200,000 doses from Chinese vaccine maker Sinopharm, and another 600,000 doses are expected to arrive in the country in early March. In addition, the country is expected to receive more than 1.1 million doses as part of the Covax program, which is distributing vaccines to poor and middle-income countries in an effort to help tackle global inequalities.
Zimbabwe’s frontline health workers are first in line for vaccination, but when the campaign began in recent days, some resisted the vaccine – expressing particular skepticism about China’s doses.
“I personally do not accept being vaccinated,” said Linet Sithole, a nurse in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. “It is my choice.”
She said she was concerned about the scarcity of information about the Chinese vaccine and its possible side effects.
Mr. Mnangagwa, addressing supporters in Matabeleland province, considered such concerns unfounded and noted that, after the country’s vice president gave the first injection, “he is still here”.
The president, who has not yet been vaccinated, has not yet made vaccination mandatory.
Still, his threats were criticized by some observers as autocratic and reckless – threatening to further undermine confidence in vaccines that have been shown to be safe and effective in preventing serious illness and death.
Rashweat Mukundu, a researcher at International Media Support, a group focused on unmasking false information in the media across Africa, said Mnangagwa’s message would heighten fears that the Zimbabwean government “turned Covid-19 into a weapon and failed see this as a public health issue. “
“For me, the message about mandatory vaccination is in line with the trend we have seen, which is Covid-19 as a political control tool,” he said. “Vaccination is important, but it must be the result of public awareness and building trust, not threats.”
“We have groups in Zimbabwe that for cultural and religious reasons cannot opt for vaccination and their rights must be respected,” he added.
But Tafadzwa Mugwadi, information director for the Patriotic Front of the National Union of Zimbabwe, said it was a matter of national security.
“Let it be categorical that those who deny vaccination will be a risk to others and to national security,” he said.
Although official statistics on the virus are not considered to capture the true scope of the pandemic, Zimbabwe has recorded more than 1,400 deaths since the onset of the disease.