globalpressjournal
Mount Darwin: One recent evening, men, women and children crowd a dusty, windy space on the grounds of Karanda Mission Hospital, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. They are patients with their loved ones.
Having traveled many miles, they brought camping tents, blankets, pots and pans. Some people cook and talk. Others sit on mats or on dirty cardboard boxes. For the days or weeks that they’re here awaiting treatment, this spot is home.
Ndaizivei Makaza, a mother of five who lives in Mutoko, 290 kilometers (180 miles) away from the hospital, came because of continuous menstrual bleeding. After each long day of tests, she and her mother return to their cardboard box, where they relax with tea and bread. Makaza has been here almost a week.
As Covid creeps across Africa, ageing officials drop off suddenly
Having underfunded their public hospitals for years and without access to clinics abroad, the continent s leaders are easy prey to the virus
2 February 2021 • 4:30pm
The funeral of Burundi s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, thought to be the first world leader to die of Covid
Credit: Tchandrou Nitanga/AFP
Thanks to its young and mainly rural population, Africa has avoided the catastrophic coronavirus death tolls seen in the West.
But as the virus silently creeps across the continent, ageing government ministers, officials and social elites in some African countries seem to be succumbing to Covid-19 at an alarming rate.
Aljazeera
ON January 20, Zimbabweans were shocked to hear the news of the death of Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo, the latest government official to succumb to Covid-19.
The 61-year-old, who rose to fame after appearing on state television on November 15, 2017, to announce the military coup that overthrew longtime President Robert Mugabe, died at a private hospital in the capital, Harare, days after testing positive for coronavirus.
Moyo was the third cabinet minister to have died of Covid-19 in recent weeks amid a major surge in the pandemic (Transport Minister Joel Biggie Matiza and Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Ellen Gwaradzimba were the other two) and the fourth in total (Agriculture Minister Perrance Shiri passed away in July).