UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

DEPARTMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION

MORGENSTER TEACHERS COLLEGE

DIPLOMA IN EDUCATION (PRIMARY)

GENERAL COURSE: INTAKE 23 CLASS OF JAN 2018 – 20

NAME: MUDUNGA.MEMORIZE

CANDIDATE NUMBER:23/185/2018

SUBJECT: SOCIAL STUDY

TOPIC:

DUE DATE:

LECTURERS:

COMMENTS..............................................................................................................................

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MARK OBTAINED

MARKED BY...................................................SIGNATURE...........................................

MODERATOR.............................................................. MARK
COVID 19 has an impact on the whole world. The impact of the virus is felt by nations in their

socio-economic spheres. Zimbabwe like other nations is also negatively affected by COVID 19.

In Zimbabwe the virus has some negative impacts. This includes it causing some people to lose

their jobs thereby increasing the unemployment rate. It has caused a decline in trade. COVID 19

has caused a decline in remittance to the government. It has worsened the household food

insecurity in the country. The virus has stretched the country’s fragile health system. The essence

of this writing is to analyses the impact caused by COVID 19 in Zimbabwe The key terms are

going to be defined in the below paragraph.

According to WHO (2019),COVID 19 disease is An infectious disease caused by virus called

corona that is believed to be originated from the sea that causes illness to people and can be

transmitted from one person to another through close contact, inhaling contaminated droplets and

touching contaminated surfaces.COVID -19 stands for ‘CO’ stands for corona ,’VI’ for virus and

‘D’ for diseases .According to Merriam online dictionary impact is defined as something which

has a strong negative or positive effect . . Therefore the word impact can be defined as a change

brought by something or by a certain action. The word impact means change that can either be

negative or positive brought by something or by an action.

Decline in trade is one of the negative impacts the virus had on Zimbabwe. Newsday Zimbabwe

(2020) asserts that most of the countries’ trade will be significantly affected. Both import and

export trades were be affected in Zimbabwe. The production of goods within the country that

used to be exported to other countries was affected. At the initial stage of the lockdown some

mines were closed and some were not operating on full scale this affected the countries trade.

Mining is the major earning of the country’s foreign currency together with agriculture. The

lockdown affected all the countries and it also affected inter-trade of nations. Movement of
goods which were considered not essential was banned by WHO at the initial stage of the

international lockdown since it initiated the idea of closing boarders. Flights were banned.

Trading of countries of minerals and other commodities was not considered during that period. .

Different companies and industry were closed on the first lockdown phase in March which was a

blow to the trade sector since some of the companies were major suppliers of goods through the

nation. Agricultural activities were put to halt since the movement of goods was banned in the

country farmers were not able to transport their goods to markets.

Coved 19 has also caused the loss of jobs to different people in Zimbabwe ,according to daily

news survey 49.3 per cent of domestic workers were significantly impacted, many companies

closed production which caused loss of jobs to many workers. In different working sectors

C0VID 19 has caused reduction of working hours resulting in the reduction of wages to many

workers, this provides a regional view of the proportion of workers who either lost their jobs or

saw their working hours reduced. COVID 19 has caused some people to lose their jobs in

Zimbabwe increasing the unemployment rate. According to ZCTU (2020) a significant number

of people have loosed their jobs in the country as some companies were closed or had their

workforce downsized. Even those people who were self-employed had their occupations

affected. Zimbabwe before the COVID 19 had been having a high rate of unemployment. Due to

the closure of some companies, the downsizing of the workforce in some companies and the

prohibition of some people who were self-employed from doing their businesses a significant

number of people were left jobless.

Also an increase in the domestic violence cases is noted the country due to the COVID 19.

According to IPSOS (2020) the survey they contacted showed that they had been a significant

rise of cases of domestic abuse with women and children being the major victims. As a way to
curb the spread of the virus, the government introduced a lockdown. In this lockdown those

mother and father who used to go to work are forced to stay at home with their families. . The

News now online Zimbabwean newspaper have reported that domestic violence in Zimbabwe

have risen from from low to higher levels .Movement limits imposed by the government of

Zimbabwe have forced people to spend much more time at home ,leading to a surge in domestic

violence because during lockdown most families were not able to go outside ,and family

conflicts just grew bigger and bigger and more and more frequent as everything bad family

issues which was exposed during the period therefore causing violence especially to women. .

Because of having the entire day at home and sometimes having average food in meals because

of the closure of the sources of income by the lockdown, a number of families ended by having

some disputes. The disputes lead some of the members using aggressive behaviors against the

weaker family members. Though men were also victims of the domestic violence most of the

reported cases had women and children as victims. COVID 19 has caused a rise in domestic

violence cases in the country.

Ministry of heathy and child welfare (2020) the virus have resulted in the deterioration of health

care infrastructure, loss of experienced health personnel. The virus has caused the deterioration

of healthy sector through channeling of unbudgeted money to curb corona virus. The health

workers in the sector had been complaining about their welfare and shortage of medicines. The

country has been having poor health delivery system. That was the state of the country’s health

delivery system before the virus. The virus has worsened the situation. Health workers are

demanding more in terms of personal protective clothing and are complaining about their

salaries. They complain because their lives are at risk of contracting the virus so the need a better

remuneration to take the risk. Refurbishment and improvement of the health facilities had been a
must as well as the purchase of test kits among other things. Different hospitals many diseases

were ignored as the nurses and doctors were only concentrating on the virus which caused loss of

lives due to negligence. The virus needed much attention from the government because the

medicines were needed, clinics were in a need of being refurbished, workers demanding decent

wages and this worse the system.

COVID 19 has also caused the decline of education system by the closing of schools .In

Zimbabwe schools were closed to delay the spread of virus which have caused the closure of

schools and universities ,although learners can work online by E learning it must be noted that

the teacher availability in the learning environment is needed to guide and assist the learner or

students in the studies but due to COVID 19, face to face lectures in universities were banned

which is paddling back our education sector ,since most of the Zimbabwean learners are in rural

areas they cannot afford E learning .therefore it can be argued that coved 19 has caused the

education sector to left behind .

To the positive, COVID 19 has united the Zimbabweans, according newsdzezimbabwe online

news it recorded that the virus have managed to bring unity among Zimbabweans churches,

companies and non-governmental organization managed to work together to curb the virus

.Citizens managed to help each other in donations of food portions to fellow citizens who are less

privileged which fostered unity among Zimbabweans it have managed to improve trade to

local firms or companies, since the government banned the exportation and importation of goods

local companies were able to supply goods locally which promoted local manufactured products
In conclusion it must be noted that to a greater extend that the COVID 19, has brought negative

impact in the country of Zimbabwe through different ways which were mentioned in the above

essay .People loosed jobs, hunger and starvation, deterioration of heath sector among others

although the pandemic brought negative impact to the economy it managed to foster unity among

citizens.
REFERENCES

1. IPSOS 2020 The Economic Impact of Epidemics. New York: International Monetary
Fund. MHCW COVID 19: implications on Zimbabwe’s exports and way forward.
Harare: ZimTrade.
2. Merriam Webster Dictionary (2012). Definition of impact. Retrieved from
http://www.merriamwebsterdictionary.com.pipedream. Accessed on 20 August 2020.
3. United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2020). Policy Briefing: A Preliminary
Assessment of the Socio-economic Impact of Corona Virus (COVID 19) on Zimbabwe.
Retrieved from http://www.undp.org>rba>docs. Accessed on 20 August
4. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) (2020). Response to the Impact of COVID
19 (Corona Virus) Pandemic on Workers and Zimbabwean Economy. Retrieved from
http://www.zctu.org/covid19/pandemic>html. Accessed on 23 August 2020.
5. Newsday (2020). Pandemic risks: How large are the expected losses? Bulletin of Word Health
Organisaton