Mutsvangwa tells Parliament there will come a time when you cannot access pubic facilities if you are not vaccinated

HON. SEN. DR. MAVETERA: My supplementary is we all know as a nation that one of the problems which caused all this was the Beitbridge border post. In December, there were rumours that there were fake COVID-19 certificates which were being used by our local Zimbabweans when coming back. So, what mechanisms has the Government put in place to ensure that we are not going to have the same problem which was actually the trigger of the upsurge of COVID-19 during the last festive season.  I thank you.

HON. SEN. MUTSVANGA: Thank you Mr. President. I want to thank the Hon. Senator for that question. Yes, in terms of Beitbridge problems, we are all aware of what happened and certainly you are right it was part of the triggers of the upsurge of what we saw in January and December.  When I answered, I said there is a lot of work which is being done by our security agencies to make sure that the problem will not recur.  The Ministry of Health is involved in making sure that the COVID-19 negative certificate which will be presented are not fake but real, they have put everything in order.  I thank you.

HON. SEN. KOMICHI: Thank you very much Mr. President, with the threat of the third wave of COVID-19, looking at our current policy which says vaccination is not compulsory, with such a vicious anti-vaccination campaign in the world, what is the Government’s plans to ensure that everyone gets vaccinated. Chances are that we are likely to have more people who will remain unvaccinated because of the anti-vaccination campaign.

HON. SEN. MUTSVANGWA: Thank you Mr. President, I am not sure if that is a supplementary but I am very happy to answer.  I want to thank the Hon. Senator for that question, I must say as leaders of this Government, it is our job to make sure we continue to make our people understand the benefits of being vaccinated.  Vaccination so far since the roll out in February is ongoing very well and just yesterday, our head of State and President of this country actually launched the second phase of vaccination in Victoria Falls and this was obviously done for the fact that we want to open up Victoria Falls to tourism, considering how much we have been losing in that industry for a long time now.

I want to say we will be vaccinating not the whole population, I think we are about between 15 to 17 million but we are looking at vaccinating 60% of the population which is about 10 million people.  Yes, you are right that is a lot and that will give us what is called herd immunity.  We are making sure that the message that should go out there is for the benefits of vaccination. We should be as leaders together with Government work towards making people understand the importance of being vaccinated.  We are happy and proud to have a President like Cde. E. D. Mnangagwa who has actually gone very quickly in terms of making sure that the Government procure those vaccinations.  They are here now, they are free of charge, you do not pay anything and that vaccination will protect you. So, we continue to move around with this message and we upped our game even as the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Service, you can see each time when you open your television, all we are talking about is pushing on the issue of vaccination.

It will obviously come to a point where you will not be able to enter certain places if you are not vaccinated. So, it is very critical for all Zimbabweans to take an opportunity to get vaccinated, some countries up to date they have not received vaccination. As a country, we are actually top of the five in the whole of Africa who have vaccinations and the roll-out have been done.  So we should be proud of what our Government is doing for us.  We have already started hearing stories like certain airlines will not allow you to get on the plane without a vaccination certificate. Soon you may hear that you cannot get into the bus because you will be a danger to those who are next to you.  You cannot get into ZUPCO. We have tried, our President is the face of the campaign of vaccination, he has been vaccinated and as Ministry of Publicity we made sure that he talks to the people of this country.  I myself as Minister when I got vaccinated I did not do it secretly I did it publicity and I made it a point that people must actually see the needle going through and see that I stand up and continue to do my work and up to today I am still doing my work, there are no reactions.  These vaccines are safe and we continue to tell the people of this country, let us go and get vaccinated.  I thank you.

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