The poor State of Health in Zimbabwe's Hospitals

By Vimbai Chambara

The World Health Organization announced that Robert Mugabe would be the organisation's Goodwill Ambassador , a role reserved to those who have made much contribution to their communities and have the respect of those the people they will represent. I am curious that after much debate the honour was stripped from Mugabe however, how was this honour bestowed on him in the first place?  His regime have continuously creamed the vulnerable and in their hour of need push them into further despair as they watch loved one die due to raising costs of health care provision in Zimbabwe.

 Surely, Mugabe cannot ignore his governments’ failings to meet the health needs of his people. The regime boasts that Zimbabwe’s public health system provides health care services which are complemented by Mission hospitals and health care services supported by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, in recent years, economic decline and political instability have led to a reduction in health-care budgets, affecting provision at all levels.  The country’s health care sector has faced a shortage of professional staff, poor equipped hospitals, lack of medication and an erosion of the infrastructure of hospital infrastructure. Humanitarian crisis including HIV, cholera and measles epidemics, as well as poor services for children have exacerbated the breakdown of the medical response to the nation’s needs.

The state of Zimbabwe's Hospitals is very poor

Government run Harare, Mpilo and Parirenyatwa Hospital all face this dilemma brought about by political instability and chaos in the management of the health care system under Mugabe's watch. Vulnerable Zimbabweans  have witnessed services deteriorate further as the government failed to provide much needed substantial financial support to the health care system and introduced user fees for health care.

Health care services at public and private hospitals are a biased lottery system where those with money can afford treatment. These fees varying from provider to provider, a financial burden  and barrier for the most vulnerable citizens of Zimbabwe to access the most basic health services. A shocking example is that giving birth at a government hospital can cost up to USD 50 and 39 % of women are option to take risks and have their child at home without medical provision. Examining the current state and crisis of the health care services in Zimbabwe, how does the WHO insult vulnerable people in Zimbabwe by recognising Mugabe as a leader in promoting health? A man when employs poor strategies, inadequate polices and management putting every Zimbabwe at risk of imminent death due poor health care provision.

What is Activsm?

ac·tiv·ism  (ăk′tə-vĭz′əm)
noun.
The use of direct, often confrontational action, such as a demonstration or strike, in opposition to or support of a cause.

activism (ˈæktɪˌvɪzəm)
noun
(Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a policy of taking direct and often militant action to achieve an end, esp a political or social one
ˈactivist - noun

Lest we forget what activism is about, a couple of dictionary definitions of ACTIVISM.

Zimbabweans entering theior own Embassy to protest

For those in Zimbabwe few are happy with the state of affairs in the economy, or for any form of opposition to the dictates on an illegal "Government" [ a Zanu PF regime masquerading as a Government when they are in fact a military junta, whose sole purpose is to remain in power so they can continue to loot every facet of the wealth of Zimbabwe].

For those who have been forced to flee Zimbabwe, activism is one method to secure change. For those in Zimbabwe Activism can be a death sentence - those who tread this path do so very carefully.

The illegal Government of Zimbabwe has recently appointed a failed Finance Minister to head a Cyber Security, Threat Detection, and Mitigation Ministry.

Law expert, Alex Magaisa, said this week that “But more ominously creating a standalone Ministry to monitor cyberspace also shows Mugabe's penchant for expanding instruments of coercion as opposed to protection of fundamental freedoms. Chinamasa's new role should send alarm bells ringing in both civil society and the opposition. The hand of state repression is only getting stronger and Chinamasa will try to justify the relevance of his new role..”

“People have been making jokes about this ministry but I see serious threat to freedom of expression, access to information and the right to privacy,” said Chris Musodza, an ICT expert based in Harare. “We now have a ministry dedicated to surveillance and monitoring of the cyberspace.”

Clearly the 'state apparatus' will do its utmost to stamp out opposition, or the means of communication - which will subvert their own domination of 'traditional' media channels.

“People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” Alan Moore

This should be the state of affairs for all Governments, but alas most will fail this test, and those like Zimbabwe are working from the other end of this scale [of natural justice]. So for a band of Zimbabweans to walk into their own embassy to challenge the the evil regime and its state apparatus IS activism, it is a symbolic act. - To change perception, to challenge a nation so cowed by a dictator, that the removal of his portrait from the wall of the Embassy is actually seen as treason - ironically and most telling, tragically the same dictator responsible [but as yet unpunished] for the genocide known as Gukurahundi, but also torture, rape, abductions, murder to the present day. 

Their motto has to be "voters need to be afraid of what we will do if you do not vote Zanu PF back into their comfort zone of looting and elitism"

The Zanu PF junta rules Zimbabwe, with an iron fist in an iron glove, and with iron Jack Boots. Their position as a purported "democratically elected Government" [sic] has to be challenged, not just by Zimbabweans, but by the rest of the World. Zanu PF are a criminal cabal, with much more in common with a terrorist organisation than the rest of the World should tolerate.