Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Lovemore Matuke says Government has blamed the opposition MDC for its failure to provide standard quarantine accumulation for 65 Zimbabweans who returned from the UK.

Mature said the returnees who complained over facilities offered at Belvedere Teachers College were pushing a political agenda to tarnish the government.

“Now is not the time to score cheap political mileage, as Government, with the rest of the world is making frantic efforts to fight the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

“These people are attention seekers with a political agenda. This is not time for politicking, the pandemic is serious. We cannot risk their families because they have their own motives. The activists are trying to politicise Covid-19 and trying to destabilise the spirit of unity, which is currently prevailing in the country.

“We will only be able to give attention to such behaviour after we manage to control the pandemic.”

The returnees cited deplorable state of affairs at the isolation centre that included lack of running water and being forced to share toilets and bathrooms.

Government has since declared that there would be no red carpet treatment for the UK returnees, stating that they would be quarantined just like any other Zimbabwean returning, as the country joins the rest of the world in the battle to contain the spread of Covid-19.