On 30 March 2020, Zimbabwe's President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, declared a national disaster and implemented COVID-19 lockdown measures, even though the country had no confirmed coronavirus cases. This move was correct in keeping with the strategy to mitigate and manage the spread of COVID-19 as published in the health guidelines of the World Health Organization and the African Union Centre for Disease Control. However, the administration of the legalities to control the spread of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe has drawn some criticism that merits investigation. This study, therefore, critically interrogates to what extent the administration of the legalities of COVID-19 Lockdown extraordinary measures protected or accentuated the negative impact of COVID-19 on Zimbabwean citizens. In this study, a legal perspective is adopted and used to interpret the implementation of the health guidelines for severe diseases as provided in the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013), and some selected Statutory Instruments were introduced between 2020 and 2021. It is argued that COVID-19 lockdown measures were necessary to mitigate and control the spread of the pandemic. However, this said, the administration of the legalities to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 tended to infringe on citizens' human rights in ways that further compromised the health of Zimbabwean citizens and undermined their already fragile livelihoods. The study recommends that all stakeholders be consulted to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and/or any other potential future pandemics.
