by Tichaona Chifamba
HARARE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- A directive by Zimbabwe's Public Service Commission (PSC) to bar from work all employees who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 has been met with mixed feelings, with some people applauding the move while others argue that the government is now coercing workers to be vaccinated against their will.
The country is still smarting from a deadly third wave of the pandemic which witnessed several hundreds of deaths and thousands of new infections.
As of Wednesday, the country had recorded 127,083 infections, 4,551 deaths and 119,787 recoveries.
While the government had at the beginning of the vaccination program in March indicated that people would not be forced to get vaccines, it has over the past few months been moving toward ensuring that all its employees were vaccinated.
Continuing infections and the perceived risk of the unvaccinated spreading the virus to others have thus prompted the government to further tighten screws on the unvaccinated, with the hammer falling heaviest on its employees.
It started in July when the PSC barred unvaccinated employees from using the commission's buses.
The cabinet on Tuesday decided that all unvaccinated government workers should stop reporting for duty, leading the PSC to issue a directive to that effect.
PSC Secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe on Wednesday sent a circular to all heads of government ministries and the Auditor-General's Office, directing that all civil servants should be vaccinated immediately or face the possibility of losing their jobs.
"In line with the said Cabinet decision, all civil servants should be vaccinated without delay and unvaccinated members shall not be allowed to report for duty and will not be deemed to be working," Wutawunashe said. "All heads of ministries are therefore urged to make arrangements for all civil servants under their jurisdiction to be vaccinated, and to explain to any who elect not to be vaccinated that they will now not be deemed to be working."
Many people have responded to the directive on social media, with some supporting it while others said they believed it infringed on the rights of citizens.
One contributor on Twitter who goes by the name Kwandinobva said the government move would possibly result in a lawsuit.
"Plus this will probably result in a lawsuit of some sort which the government is unlikely to win," the contributor said. "And there is actually no medical or legal reason to do this."
A group calling itself the Young Professional Educators of Zimbabwe Trust urged the government to make vaccines more easily accessible to the civil servants and use persuasion rather than force to achieve desired results.
"Civil servants will feel special if you implement the vaccination process in a way that they easily access it. Use of forceful methods breeds animosity and suspicion. People will hate the government if anything goes wrong," said the group. "This is abuse of personal liberties and rights. Vaccinations must be a matter of choice. Governments and corporates must not use negative reinforcement on employees. Try motivation strategies like awareness building and giving priority to civil servants on access to vaccines."
Another contributor, Andy Gocha, however, said that the need to protect lives was greater than one's right to refuse vaccination.
"There is no constitutional right to recklessly infect and cause death to other employees. Your right is outweighed by other employees' right to live," Chocha said.
Freeman Ngara also said vaccinations were the way to go. "I don't know how we expect to get rid of this virus without vaccination. Good move," he said.
Apart from the government, several private entities have ordered their employees to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, a labor body, made an urgent chamber application seeking the High Court's support to stop the entities from pursuing their intentions but the court ruled that the application was not urgent.
Therefore, the application will be heard after those that were filed before it have been dealt with.
Besides other lockdown measures, restaurants and churches are only allowed sit-ins for fully vaccinated customers and congregants.
As of Wednesday, 2,892,137 people had got their first dose of the vaccine, while 1,963,058 had been fully vaccinated.
The government intends to have about 10 million citizens (or about 60 percent of the population) vaccinated so that the country achieves herd immunity.
So far vaccines have continued to come in with China providing the bulk either as direct sales or donations.
The government has so far bought 13 million of the 20 million doses needed to achieve herd immunity.
Zimbabwe has approved vaccines -- Sinopharm and Sinovac from China, Covaxin from India, Sputnik V from Russia and Johnson and Johnson -- for use against COVID-19 in the country. Enditem
