AFRICAN EYE

By Rawlings Magede The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed inequalities between countries in the Global North and those in Global South. While governments across the world have responded differently to contain the spread of the virus, vaccine hoarding and use of patent laws has crippled vaccine access and distribution in the Global South. Patent laws such as Intellectual Laws by pharmaceutical companies in the Global North makes it difficult for countries in the Global South to manufacture and distribute vaccines to their populations. The ring fencing of vaccine patents has created monopolies driven by profit and capitalism. The Covax scheme that was designed to bypass this has been plagued by inequity, funding shortfalls and a severe supply crunch. Its initial targets for the year 2021 were missed, partly as a result of the poor health infrastructure in many of the recipient country and partly because of vaccine hesitancy. Cultural and religious beliefs in most countries in the Global South

By Rawlings Magede President Emmerson Mnangagwa administration faces a huge dilemma going forwad. Distortions within the USD-RTGs rate have led to a spike in prices of basic commodities. The cost of living has seriously deteriorated in the first half of the year which has seen sharp increases in the price of fuel. Prices of basic goods have soared and the cost of living is not even comparable to the cost of labour. This rise has resultantly diminished disposable incomes for workers and the general populace who have already been dealt a heavy blow of unemployment. This has seen a serious decline in the standard of living and tremendously high levels of poverty. The much touted rhetoric of a middle class economy that is anchored on National Development Strategy (NDS) 1 remains a farce.Overal funding for this ambitious strategy requires over US40 billion which the government does not have. Illicit financial flows, leakages and corruption have eroded government revenue that usually com

  By Rawlings Magede The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) turns 9 years this year having been established under Chapter 12 of the constitution in 2013. Its establishment was part of efforts by citizens to bring sanity to our electoral democracy especially after sham elections in 2002, 2005, and 2008 respectively. Since its establishment, the electoral body has done very little to inspire public confidence through its intents. After the 2013 elections that were generally peaceful, there were allegations that the electoral body had enlisted the services of an Israeli company, Nikuv to rig elections on its behalf. Though these allegations divided public opinion, they served to erode the little confidence citizens had in the new electoral body. As ZEC turns 9 years this year, has it fulfilled the aspirations of those that voted resoundingly in favour of the constitution in March 2013? Our Electoral processes have always failed the test! While the 2013 election was generally peacef