Own Correspondent
Returnees housed at Townsend High School in Bulawayo have raised concerns on the conditions at the quarantine centre which they claim to be uninhabitable.
Speaking to ZimEye.com in confidence, one of the returnees at the centre indicated that they are being kept at the centre under squalid conditions with no water and very poor food provisions.
“The issue is that human rights are not being observed at Townsend High School quarantine centre in Bulawayo. The main problem is that there is no running water yet we are in the middle of a pandemic,” said a source at the centre.
According to the source, a total of twenty eight people including five children have been housed at the centre since the 20th of July despite goverment claims that all schools have been cleared of being Covid-19 quarantine centres.
Amongst the twenty three adults, one of the returnees is said to be a heavily pregnant woman who is due to deliver any time soon.
“The food is different from the rest of the other quarantine centres where others that we travelled with are placed,” said the source.
“We are being fed Soya Chunks, cabbage and beans on a daily basis while our colleagues at Khumalo hotel are being given a five star treatment.”
The source further complained that since they arrived at the centre they have not been tested having only been tested at Beitbridge Border Post on arrival.
“The other returnees in other centres have been tested again after Beitbridge tests but nothing has happened here,” she said. “We are still waiting to have our second testing.”
Schools being used as quarantined centres were expected to be vacated over three weeks ago. Announcing the developments at a press briefing on the outcome of the National Taskforce on Covid-19 meeting last month, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa, said provincial task forces had to quickly move to find alternative accommodation for the returnees.
Efforts to get a comment from Bulawayo Minister of Provincial Affairs on the situation at Townsend High School were not successful at the time of this article.