Mugabe’s goodwill health role withdrawn after outcry

THE World Health Organisation yesterday withdrew its decision to appoint Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador after a global outcry.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, recently appointed WHO directorgeneral, said: “Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment. As a result, I have decided to rescind the appointment. I have listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns, and heard the different issues that they have raised.”

Mr Mugabe (93), who has led Zimbabwe with an iron fist since independence from the UK in 1980, took an expensive charter flight from Harare to Uruguay last week to attend WHO’s global conference on non-communicable disease.

When bestowing the honour, Dr Tedros called Zimbabwe “a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the centre of its policies to provide healthcare to all”.

The UK expressed its dismay at the honour by WHO – the UN’s healthcare branch – and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the appointment was “absolutely unacceptable and inconceivable”.

The Wellcome Trust, the World Heart Federation and several Zimbabwean doctors and human rights groups protested against the decision, which has turned into a public-relations disaster for Dr Tedros, an Ethiopian who had pledged to reform the organisation.

The announcement of Mr Mugabe’s appointment sparked outrage from many Zimbabweans, who suffer under the country’s lack of medical facilities.

Mr Mugabe’s policies obliterated the country’s healthcare system, once the best in Africa, to a point where today there are virtually no medical facilities in the decrepit state hospitals.

Dr Mark Sonderup, vicechairman of the huge South African Medical Association, said he had been shocked at Mr Mugabe’s appointment: “If this is the UN’s benchmark, it renders any further appointments or honours by the UN as pointless.”

Violet Gonda, a popular Zimbabwean commentator and broadcaster, tweeted: “So they dish out accolades without fact-checking. Collapse of education and healthcare is his legacy.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)