Thursday 11 October 2018

ZADHR will sue to secure forex for drugs - placid finally forced to act, "chando charova" N Garikai


“Charova sei chando kukwidza hamba mumuti!” (It will have to be a bitterly cold weather to force the tortoise to climb a tree! Unusual hardships will force even the placid and indifferent to act!) Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown is certainly forcing some of our slumbering sloths; no single tortoise will be seen up the tree, as yet; to wake up!

"The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) board resolved and gave government through the ministry of Health and Child Care, the ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe a 72-hour ultimatum to announce measures that will ensure adequate allocation of foreign currency from the central bank for drug procurement," ZADHR spokesperson Fortune Nyamande told the Daily News.

If the funding is not provided, ZADHR will lodge an urgent constitutional court challenge citing government's violation of the right to healthcare as provided under international and Zimbabwean law.

On the court challenge itself; the challenge should be based on something more subtle such as demanding the justification for government spending hundreds of millions of dollars buying new cars for Chiefs, Zanu PF party leaders, etc. and on chartered but failing to buy life-saving drugs.

No Court in the world would expect every government to fulfil utopian wishes like everyone having the right to health care, education, clean drinking water, etc., etc.!

Indeed, one of the things that makes our 2013 Constitution such a wishy-washy constitution is its failure to separate deliverable political rights such as the right to free, fair and credible elections from the aspirational rights such as the right to health care. Tyrannical regime like this Zanu PF have willingly promised to deliver both only to end up denying the people all their rights!

One has to question ZADHR the wisdom of taking the case to a Zimbabwean court – the same legal system that less than a year ago ruled that a military coup is “legal and constitutional”!  

Just getting someone in ZADHR to be finally roused to even issue this statement is a great achievement! What roused them is simple enough to ascertain – the worsening economic situation, the bitterly cold weather threaten to force the tortoise to seek shelter up a tree.

These doctors know the shortage of drugs affect not only the patient but all those whose livelihood depend, directly or indirectly, on the health care system. Yes the patients will suffer and many will die but every doctor, nurse, pharmacist, etc. knows, without the patients, they are next to suffer and many will die too!  

Sadly our roused slumbering sloth, Zimbabwe’s health care has taken decades to sink into this sorry state and the ZADHR never lifted a finger until now, is not going to do much other than make some farting noise. We have all heard about these ultimatum and court challenges, especially from the opposition and the country’s morbid civic society, which all frizzle out into nothing!

Chamisa took his election result challenge to the Con-Court and the Judges, in their infinite wisdom, refused to consider all sworn affidavit evidence before them. They will only consider “primary source evidence”, they insisted. And that primary source evidence was only found in the sealed ballot boxes.

The the Judges could have ordered the boxes to be opened but, guess what, it never occurred to them. They also know pretended not to know the Court officials had failed to act of the plaintiff’s application to have the sealed ballot boxes opened.

Of course, the Con-Court connived to make sure the sealed ballot boxes were not opened at all cost – they were the Judges’ bolt hole through which they escape on their sworn duty to delivering justice. Why we even bother to call these buffoons “Justice” when that is the one thing they do not delivery, beggars belief!

ZADHR are taking their turn, seeking justice from the same compromised Judges, known for tampering with the law to escape upholding their constitutional duty of upholding the law and delivering justice.

7 comments:

  1. "If ZEC's elections results were not "verifiable" or "traceable" as captured in the EU report on the 30 July 2018 elections then clearly the Presidential result was manufactured by ZEC.
    EU felt short of making that clear. Chigumba anonyadzisa!" Dr Ruhanya tweeted

    The trouble with a scatter brain like Ruhanya is they make a mountain out of a mole hill and always tying themselves up in a knot! Just because the report did not use the phrase "Presidential result was manufactured by ZEC" that does not mean the report "felt short of making that clear". This is just Ruhanya decided to infer from the report.

    Someone else may infer that the report does say the elections were rigged. If you cannot verified or trace how ZEC came up with the result then the result was rigged!

    The nation should focus on the essence of the report i.e. election result is not a true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people of Zimbabwe because the whole process was flawed and illegal. We should not allow ourselves to be side tracked by nincompoops like Ruhanya who would happily spend the next five years on semantic, want the EU report nearly but did not quite say it, etc. as if that is all that mattered here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Hombre
    ZEC has failed to show the observers were the commission got its figures from; not even ZEC could trace and verify the figure. There were only 11 000 polling station whose figures ZEC was supposed to tally and announce the result and yet it took four days to do so and still come up with three different figures none of which ZEC could not trace or verify.
    ZEC has failed to explain why some of the V11 and V23 forms were not made public and has failed to produce them to this day!
    The elections were rigged and the EU report is clear on that! What you are saying here is just nonsense!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rigging the elections was the easy bit, rigging the economy is mission impossible. Rigging the elections was like swimming upstream the flood Zambezi River; rigging the economy will be swimming up the Victoria Falls!

    ReplyDelete
  4. George Charamba, the Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications) last week said Government was in the process of setting up legal frameworks that allow for the accommodation of the "Office of the Leader of the Opposition", as part of building institutions of governance in the Second Republic.
    Those who think that Mnangagwa's illegitimacy will be softened much less transformed into legitimate are very much mistaken. Mnangagwa rigged the elections and every respectable election observer who was in Zimbabwe to witness the process has said this. Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs who shot seven innocent civilians to remind everyone they will not tolerate dissent. The damage is done and anyone who thinks the appointment of Chamisa as Opposition Leaders will change anything is naïve!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is gratifying that ZADHR have ventured out of their comfort zone. As a rule, Zimbabwe professionals have tendered to stay out of the country's dirty politics, have gone along to get along or, as with the case with people like Justice Chingumba or Tendai Biti, dive into the dirty politics head first.

    One can only hope that ZADHR awaken will force them and other Zimbabwean professional to open their eyes and make them finally realise that by allowing the country to go to the dogs all these years they have not only denied the poor a future but have denied themselves a future too. Zimbabwe is like a boat, if it sinks it will take the rich and the poor with her!

    Zimbabwe's foreign currency shortage is a just a manifestation of a bigger and more perverse problem of chronic bad governance. I would not be surprise if most doctors have shut themselves out in their own bubble they do not know that the recent elections were rigged. This is the heart and soul, alpha and omega, of our bad governance. Nothing much we be accomplish in tackling the foreign currency shortage problems without first doing something to end the scourge of rigged elections!

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Prosperity Mzila
    First you talk about some adage a man who listened to his own lies and was turned into a moron.
    "There is an old adage that says a man who lies to himself and listens to his own lies, comes to a point when he cannot discern the truth within himself, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others, and having no respect he ceases to love. This best describes Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, who has mastered the art of deceit and has applied it in his own party, successfully," you said.
    Then the next thing you repeat your own lies.
    "Indeed, President Mnangagwa is a decisive man and a listening leader. He declared that under his watch, Zimbabwe would conduct free, fair and credible elections, a process that was attended by regional, continental and international bodies to observe and draw their conclusions. His word stood strong and every other party managed to participate in the election campaign and people from all walks of life cast their votes for candidates of their choice from the Council, Parliamentary and Presidential candidates free from intimidation."
    Mzila, the EU team that was in Zimbabwe to observe the elections have just release their report on the elections. "The final results, as announced by the Electoral Commission, contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," said the EU report.
    The elections were rigged, President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF are illegitimate, they are an abomination and they must step down and not hold the nation to ransom!
    Chamisa is corrupt and incompetent but Mnangagwa is worse, he is not just incompetent and corrupt but a vote rigging and murderous thug who is now holding the nation to ransom. But let me tell you here and now, the illegitimate regime is going no amount of thuggery will stop the tide of change sweeping the nation.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Government recognise concerns surrounding RTGS deposits, and we commit to preserve the value of these balances on the current rate of exchange of 1 to 1, in order to protect people's savings.
    As long as Zimbabwe remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country will never achieve any meaningful economic recovery. People like Minister Ncube is refusing to admit Zanu PF rigged the recent elections and is, per se, a pariah state. He has his head buried in the sand and that is the one thing Zimbabwe cannot not afford especially from one wielding so much political power!

    ReplyDelete