According to police records, nearly 2,000 people were arrested during the first week for defying lockdown laws. Scores of people have been rounded up and crammed into police trucks to be held at Bulawayo’s central police station. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), an NGO, said they have received individual complaints alleging police harassment, while videos circulating on social media show security forces in various cities assaulting civilians and disposing of fresh food produce. While municipal workers continue to clean up Zimbabwe’s empty cities and the first steps towards mass disinfection of public areas and busses take place in the capital, Harare, questions still loom over the country’s preparedness for a full-blown COVID-19 outbreak.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA