Covidisation of oppression: COVID-19 and human rights violations in Zimbabwe

Restrictive measures implemented in Zimbabwe since March 30, 2020 were instigated by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in China and its subsequent spread to other countries around the world. However, public concerns about preparedness, especially the government's response to the pandemic, were raised early when the coronavirus started to wreak havoc elsewhere around the world in late 2019. These concerns were particularly emphatic and palpable given that Zimbabwe has been having a health crisis for a long time well before the worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper is a critique of Zimbabwe's human rights record since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Madhukar Pai's idea of covidisation is used to conceptualise through description and explanation how the Zimbabwean government took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to further human rights abuses, hence the covidisation of oppression. I use a multipronged approach starting with a historical account detailing how the Zimbabwean government has been flagrantly violating the human rights of citizens. Documentary evidence is the main source of information for this paper coupled with the empirical observation of developments in the political arena and using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the main analytical tool. The Zimbabwean government has failed to balance the imperatives of saving lives by building a robust health system in conjunction with the creation and implementation of a comprehensive COVID-19 strategy while addressing the livelihood needs of its people.