The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Right of Access to Information Conundrums in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The end of year 2019 saw the outbreak of a global pandemic, COVID-19 which is caused by the deadly and novel coronavirus. Zimbabwe was second in Southern Africa to declare a national lockdown and adopted measures such as surveillance, testing and contact tracing to fight and contain the virus. Efforts to fight and contain the pandemic globally led to intensified efforts of information dissemination in various languages and forms of communication. Against this background, this article examines the right of access to information conundrums during the COVID-19 pandemic with particular reference to ethnic minority language speakers, the visually impaired, the Deaf and hard of hearing in Zimbabwe. Data from document analysis of the statutory instruments regulating access to information, language rights and the right to healthcare, observations of the actual practice in as far as information dissemination on the pandemic was concerned and semi-structured interviews with purposively sampled participants showed that in Zimbabwe, the right of access to critical information on the pandemic was not evenly enjoyed, a problem which had a bearing on the right to healthcare and language rights. Some sections of the Zimbabwean society, especially ethnic minority language speakers and persons with disabilities endured information blackouts due to lack of access to information on the pandemic in the languages that they understand and in forms of communication suitable for persons with disabilities. These findings point to the dire need of an explicit information dissemination language policy which takes into account the language preferences of the people affected by governmental communication or measures.