By A Correspondent- The Zanu PF government has hinted at unleashing the army on the citizens to enforce strict enforcement of COVID-19 regulations.

Announcing new COVID-19 measures at a Press conference yesterday, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe said the police was enforcing the lockdown measures, but the government could release the army to enforce compliance.

He was flanked by Defence minister Oppah Muchinguri and State Security Minister Owen Ncube.

The ministers had just come from a Joint Operations Command meeting at Chaminuka House, the Central Intelligence Organisation headquarters.

“In accordance with the emergency status we may find ourselves in, the government can call upon any security institution to implement the measures should there be that necessity,” he said.
“The law allows the government when the requirement to call any security institutions if the need arises but as for now, the police will be enforcing. But if the need arises, the government will call any security institution to assist in enforcement.”

The government deployed soldiers to enforce the first lockdown in April last year, which led to an outcry over human rights abuses during the period.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, since he went into power through a military coup in November 2017, has deployed the soldiers several times, including to quell protests over the delay in releasing the results of the presidential elections on August 1, 2018 and brutally clamp down on fuel price hike protests in January 2019.

Six civilians were killed in the first instance, while 23 people were killed in the 2019 protests clampdown by the soldiers, with thousands left nursing bullet wounds, while women were raped and tortured.