Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Nelson Chamisa, president of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) opposition party, declared that reviving Zimbabwe’s deteriorating health system is a top priority if elected during the August 23 elections.
Speaking at a rally in Silobela, Chamisa criticised leaders who seek medical attention abroad, neglecting the country’s health system. He pledged to restore Zimbabwe’s health system and retain doctors who fled the country due to poor working conditions. He said:
Our hospitals must not be death traps, our hospitals must save lives. What we have on the ground currently is very saddening. We have a crumbled health system which has been allowed to collapse following years of neglect.
Our leaders whenever they want medical attention they travel to South Africa, they travel to India. That will not be happening in our new government, we are going to restore our health systems so that we will retain our doctors who fled the country due to poor working conditions caused by an incompetent government.
I find it strange that African doctors prefer to die in foreign countries where they will be seeking better treatment while they allow their own health systems to collapse.
Chamisa also promised to pursue devolution, modernize and transform rural areas, and cut government spending with a meritocratic government of 15 ministers or less. He said:
We have enough mineral resources here in Silobela to capacitate our Silobela District Hospital so that it will be a modern and state-of-the-art hospital.
We have 60 minerals in our country and those are enough to transform lives across the country, however, those resources are benefitting a few elites. Despite having gold deposits here in Silobela, people are impoverished. I was in Gokwe, despite it being a cotton hub, people there move around in rags, that’s because there is no leadership.
Chamisa said once elected his government will pursue devolution.
We want local people to determine how best they can develop their communities using resources in their localities. We are going to change the mindset of saying everything must happen in Harare. We want to devolve power for sustainable development.
We want to address the issue of rural upliftment. Our rural areas must be modernised and transformed. We will have a policy called MATURA (Modernisation, Agenda for the Transformation and Urbanisation of Rural Areas).
Chamisa announced that if elected, his government would reduce government spending by establishing a meritocratic government with 15 or fewer ministers. He emphasized that this would increase the efficiency of the government and ensure accountability, stating that any minister who fails to deliver would be replaced.
Over the years, the ruling ZANU PF elites have been criticised for seeking medical treatment abroad while allegedly contributing to the collapse of the health sector through corruption. Robert Mugabe, the late former president, and Constantino Chiwenga, the vice president, are among the political elites who have sought medical treatment abroad. In 2020, former Health Minister, Obadiah Moyo, was dismissed from his position due to alleged involvement in the abuse of COVID-19 funds amounting to about US$40 million.
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