On Friday 1st February Mnangagwa visited
Parerenyatwa Hospital and admitted that everything from the floor, walls,
windows, hospital beds and bed linen, everything were in a sorry state and
needed to be replace or repaired. Parerenyatwa is one of the top four referral government-run
hospitals in the country and if it is in this sorry state what more of the
smaller provincial and district hospitals and clinics?
Whilst the condition in the country’s private hospitals like
the Avenues Hospital is infinitely better than those in the government
hospitals still, they too are struggling to provide the five-star health care of
the 1980s. It is therefore no surprising that the filthy rich have followed the
lead of Robert Mugabe and his family who have gone to Singapore, SA and other
places outside Zimbabwe for all their health care needs. In 2012 Mugabe made no
fewer than 8 such medical trips at the cost of US$3 million for each trip for
an eye check-up. All paid for by the tax payer, of course.
If the US$24 million for that one year alone was spend in
building and equipping one Eye Specialist Hospital Mugabe would still have had
his five-star eye check-up and whilst he is not using if millions of fellow
Zimbabweans would have benefited too!
Mugabe and his family continue to make their very expensive health
jaunts to the Far East and has since been joined by many other Zanu PF leaders
including Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and others. Last time Mnangagwa and Chiwenga were
sick they flew to SA for treatment.
“Pane zvizhinji zvandaona kuti zvido kugadzirwa,” (There are
many things I noticed are in bad repair and need fixing.) admitted Mnangagwa.
He was quick to admit all the many things that need fixing
but very careful not to say when they will be fixed.
Zimbabwe’s economic situation is worse today than it was
over a year ago when Mnangagwa took over the presidency from Mugabe following
the November 2017 military coup. Mnangagwa was cocksure his pragmatic “Zimbabwe
is open for business!” clarion call would attract the much needed foreign and
local investment. That did not happen.
Mnangagwa was pragmatic enough to realise that Mugabe’s
in-your face arrogance got the tyrant the cheap applause at the UN but had earned
the country the pariah state and alienated it, especially from investors and
lenders alike. Still Mnangagwa was naïve in thinking his clarion call, promise to
end corruption, promise to scrap many of Mugabe’s misguided indigenisation
laws, promise to hold free, fair and credible elections, etc., etc. was enough
to convince investors to return. It was not enough, investors wanted to see his
words backed by concrete action.
Mnangagwa has yet to arrest even one diamond swindler and
recover even one dollar of the US$ 15 billion Mugabe admitted were being “swindled”
every few years. By blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections Mnangagwa left no
one in any doubt that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. The regime has
effectively chased away all investors; they do not do business a pariah state
ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. The worsening economic situation with
all the shortages and social unrest will only save to confirm that Zimbabwe is
unstable.
The other day Mnangagwa appointed a
24-member Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) that will advise government on a
wide range of sectorial issues including the economy, health, agriculture and
ICT. The Council’s task is to revive the country’s economy regardless of
Zimbabwe remaining a corrupt and wasteful pariah state. An impossible task as
Professor Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, has since learned.
Mnangagwa thought his “Zimbabwe
is open for business!” clarion call would open the flood gate of investors; it
did not. He has since stopped making the call all one will see to remind one of
those exuberance “there is nothing I cannot do” days is the trademark multi-coloured
scarf he still wears. The stuffing has been knocked out!
No
wonder Mnangagwa is very careful to say nothing when the all but collapse
public health service, education, the economy, etc. will be fixed; he has no
clue. Indeed, he has given to admitting things will get worse before they get
better.
Mnangagwa knows that he rigged last July’s
elections; he was cocksure he was going to “rig” economic recovery too but that
has now proven a bridge too far. He knew he had no choice but to resort to
brute force to silence his critics first in the 1 st August protest and now in the
last two weeks’ protests. But unless PAC, his cabinet or someone comes up with
significant economic improvements he knows the protesters will be back on the
street.
The whole Mbuya Nehanda Hospital visit was a photo opportunity and gimmick. He admitted the hospital was filthy dirty and the primary reason for the visit was to clean the hospital. In a country with 90% unemployed surely there will millions who would happily be employed to clean the hospitals, streets, schools, etc. The reason why there are no cleaners is simple, no one would work for the slave wages they are offered.
ReplyDeleteIf Junior Doctors are paid a misery 385 Bond Notes or US$129 per month the cleaners will be lucky to get 1/4 of that. It costs US$1.50 to go to work and US$1.50 return and so the monthly wage is not even enough to pay for transport alone let alone other necessities.
In the interview Mnangagwa was not even phased that the hospital was in such a deplorable state. Indeed, he even made a joke about how the officials had shown him the good bits and left out the really bad bits. To the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who depend on the public health the collapsed heath care services is now a matter of life and death. To Mnangagwa it is a matter to joke about. He is not in any hurry to fix anything.
Getting Mnangagwa to acknowledge that our public health service has all but collapse was all the nation will ever get out of this regime. As for fixing it, the regime is convinced that it alone is capable of doing that and hence the reason it rigged the elections to make sure it remains in power regardless of the people's democratic wishes.
People should forget asking Mnangagwa when he is going to fix the economy, the health services, etc. and instead focus on the need to restore the people's freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.
The people have known for decades now that Zanu PF misrule was destroying the nation's economy but have been helpless to do anything to end the misrule because the party rigged elections. After 38 years of being helpless it is time to do something to end the helplessness. It is time to reclaim our freedoms and rights.
People can force the regime to step down if they focused on that task. If Zanu PF remain in power until 2023 then the party will rig those elections and extend its stay in power another five years. If that happened, we the people will have only ourselves to blame for it!