Covid 19 in Zimbabwe – Enter the era of the prophetic vaccinations

So there is this whole hullabaloo about Makandiwa’s supposed revelation and message on Sunday morning. Well, the guy is just politicking as well as playing with peoples’ minds and heads just like any other religious leader and tenderProphets that are all over Zimbabwe. When Covid started hitting home around March 2020, he was quite vocal and told his millions of followers that the disease was coming from the sea and it would “sweep” the world killing millions – bla bla and all that nonsense. That came to pass and indeed millions have died. Makandiwa kept saying that Corona Virus was a disease that came from the sea and insisted that pharmaceutical and big tech companies created the disease so that they could institute a new world order as well as reap huge profits from the vaccines.

So whether he actually said, “don’t take the vaccine or not”, the instruction not to was implied! Millions of Zimbabweans stood on the sidelines refusing to get the vaccine. Thousands have died and where they have not succumbed to the disease, they have lived to tell the horrific experiences of losing their friends and family members.

Then on Sunday, 25 July, the guy was at it again. Opportunistically seeing that Zimbabweans are dying in their hundreds in this latest wave he had a “message” for his followers. Some say that the guy was “forced” to climb down purportedly by the Government. He came out and noted that he supported vaccines and never said that people should not get vaccinated. The argument about him being forced or cajoled into a climb down is rather preposterous. It smacks of someone left with egg on their face but is stubborn enough to want to continue to have the last word. How about just going quiet?!

Some faithful have argued that he never implored on anyone not to take the vaccine. But that cannot be true because there is ample evidence showing him even saying he was ready to defy his own government. To make things simpler, one could ask a question, “So what was he saying when he said that “listen to the voice of wisdom” and all that other stuff – what was he expecting his followers to believe or follow?

The implications of what Makandiwa has done could be dire for Zimbabweans on a number of levels.

1. At a policy level, he could have single handedly contributed to the “crashing” of the vaccination program that Zimbabwe has been running so well for the past few months. This is because, starting Monday, there will be very long queues at vaccination centres and people being people, will queue for long hours, remove masks, not have sanitization facilities by the roadsides, will be buying from vendors etc. and those places could become super spreader events in a flash.
2. The panic that he has caused will lead to fatigue for the health workers who have been vaccinating people already under pressure. Now they will be forced to do longer hours and could just lead to them “exhaustion” and thus collapsing the whole vaccination system.
3. The higher infection rates starting this or next week could be directly attributed to his “i never said the Vaccines were the mark of the Beast” message and could fuel the crashing of the already burdened health system.
4. Zimbabwe does not have an online booking system for Covid 19 vaccination. Whatever is there was working just fine until Sunday 25 July and Makandiwa cannot pretend that he does not know that he has caused this. It would have been much better if his followers had a “mark” of some sort so that they would be told to wait their turn and at least be protected by God until such a time as normal people had been vaccinated.

It is not clear how much money is to be made from such a vaccine considering the many players who have already come onto the scene for a once off jab. The whole conspiracy theory around rich countries trying to cleanse the earth of people really is mind boggling. Where will they be, when the world is being smothered out of its breath?

Makandiwa cannot play with words as well as religion as if he does not understand that the following he commands has implications on the management of Covid 19 in Zimbabwe. The whole circus that is religious fanaticism needs to be dealt with in Zimbabwe – otherwise the clowning will not stop.

The law might be unclear or weak in such regards but tech companies have already started dealing with such charlatans by blocking them off their channels for spreading falsehoods. Zimbabwe now needs to look into these people just like Rwanda has done and have a country sans Hocus Pocus nonsense of Papas. Freedom of expression and religion that endangers citizens has no place in modern societies.