Hosia Mviringi
United States of America has slapped a level four travel warning on South Africa, in the latest addition to over 80 countries red-listed to date.
The US government in an Advisory issued on April 20 2021 on its official website, has “Red-zoned” South Africa, making it a “no go” area, due to high Covid-19 prevalence and threats of violent crime and civil unrest”.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notices for South Africa due to Covid-19, indicating a very high level of Covid-19 in the country,” said the statement.
Level 4 is the highest alert level for health and safety warnings, which means ‘ Do not travel’.
The United States is advising its citizens not to travel to South Africa for any purposes.
South Africa is home to an estimated 2 million Zimbabweans.
“Violent crime, such as armed robbery, rape, carjacking, mugging, and “smash and grab” attacks on vehicles, is common. There is a higher risk of violent crime in the central business districts of major cities after dark,” continued the statement.
It is as surely as the sun will rise the next day that Covid-19 will be behind us sooner as countries continue to rollout Covid-19 vaccination programs.
However, it still remains anyone’s guess when the “Violence pandemic” will be eliminated in South Africa for the country to be removed from the travel red list.
Responding to the latest red-listing of the country ,South African opposition leader, Mmusi Maimane, had no kind words for the US government for the latest action.
He literally threatened reverse travel sanctions on the United States.
“America needs to respect us. No country is perfect but South Africa is still the best country to visit in Africa.
We should issue our own travel advisory.
Do not travel to America due to Covid19, police brutality, gang activity, crime, racism, political unrest, bad food,” said Maimane on his Twitter handle.
The Covid-19 pandemic has played a divisive role worldwide since its discovery nearly two years ago.
On March 26 2021 the IS issued a Level Four Travel Alert notice for Kenya, which effectively banned all passenger flight to and from the East African nation. This action exacerbates a situation already dire for Africa as the continent seeks a way out of the predicament.
Health Alert for Zimbabwe remains at Level 2. This is mostly due to how the country’s leadership responded to the virus and the way the country has managed the pandemic and a highly successful vaccination program to date.
Perhaps what is most worrying is the way a pandemic has been weaponised by powerful, industrialised, and vaccine producing nations against poor and weaker nations.
Manufacture and distribution of vaccines have been used against weaker non-producing nations as bullying tactics increase daily.
Vaccine provision has become a new source of soft power for rich countries against poor nations.
Whereas economic sanctions have been used in the past to coerce or arm-twist weaker nations into submission, today Covid-19 has created fertile ground for abuse of international systems in the name of health and safety precautions.
Travel warnings and restrictions have become the latest tool of aggression.
Vaccines have been used to plunge small poor nations into deep “black holes” of debt as they are forced to borrow billions of dollars to finance the purchase of drugs, equipment and vaccines.
The expensive debt usually comes armed with the full instructions on which vaccine to get and where to get it from.
This is a clear case of self-enrichment program by rich vaccine producing nations at the expense of genuine need to save humanity.
Weaponisation of Covid-19 vaccines by rich nations risks becoming the next genocide if the approach remains opaque and etched in segregation.
The latest Covid-19 related form of aggression by the rich nations include among other things discriminatory travel warnings, selective distribution of life-saving vaccines and offloading of non-effective vaccines on poor nations.
As the world seek for solutions to revive economies ravaged by the Covid-19 epidemic, one of the quick wins would be through urgent opening up of the travel/tourism and hospitality industry.
Instead of travel warnings and restrictions, international cooperation to arrest the spread of the disease through vaccines and another precautionary measures would be most appropriate at this juncture.
Isolation of poor nations is self-defeating as it would restrict their response capacity for a quick return to normalcy.
The world will only be safe when all countries are safe from the pandemic.
Travel and recreation offer countries a realistic chance for a quick rebound after almost 24 months of Covid-19 related economic shutdowns.
Recent Comments