Times of COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact: Rethinking the Public Sector Practices in Zimbabwe

Zvimekria Clive Mukushwa and Enock Chikohora
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Zvimekria Clive Mukushwa: Ph.D candidate in Local Governance Studies, Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe
Enock Chikohora: Lecturer: Department of Peace, Leadership and Conflict Resolution, Zimbabwe Open University, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, 2022, vol. 9, issue 2, 59-66

Abstract: The public sector is widely recognised as one of the strategic providers of goods and services to ameliorate public welfare. Besides this, the public sector also formulates and implements macro-socio-economic policies to create a predictable, consistent and transparent investment climate. However, the advent of COVID-19 pandemic abruptly in late 2019 in China has undoubtedly reconfigured the traditional working landscape of the public sector internationally. Zimbabwe is no exception. One ponders how Zimbabwe weathered to this magnitude global catastrophe to be ahead of the curve and stay operational since its traditional practice were almost made redundant. There is still paucity of literature on COVID-19 pandemic and public sector governance. Hence, this paper assessed the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and government regulations to the public sector practices in Zimbabwe. It also evaluated the efficacy of COVID-19 preventative measures in suppressing the virus. This paper was largely qualitative study hinged on document analytic approach and snap survey. This paper argued that for public sector institutions to cope with the ‘new normal’, they should strategically rethink its philosophy of public sector practices. Analysis of recent literature that show that this global threat has unprecedentedly forced the government to trim its workforce to work physically and deferment of development projects as well as caused deaths of critical expertise and loss of revenue, among others. Debatably, the advent of COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for Zimbabwe to learn some critical lessons and insights to capitalise on new opportunities presented to modernise its practice. Even though innovative digital strategies were adopted minimally, this paper further recommends that the public sector institutions should strengthen the espousal of contemporary digital systems sustainably to stay afloat in hard times of this crisis and post-COVID-19 bane.

Date: 2022
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