Food shortages, poverty, Covid-19:
Many Zimbabweans have predicted a tough 2021 characterised by food shortages, further economic decline, deterioration of human rights coupled with the ravages of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
The country has just come out of a turbulent 2020 that saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government scale up human rights abuses while Covid-19-induced hunger was commonplace. The health and education situation deteriorated due to perennial job action by doctors, nurses and teachers over salaries.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo said he sees a worsening health crisis this year as Covid-19 cases continue to rise.
He said he foresaw an increased shortage of health workers at hospitals as many of them are increasingly going into isolation after contracting Covid.
“We have been making endless calls for government to prioritise the welfare of health workers by providing the necessary equipment and personal protective equipment,” Dongo said.
“Nurses have been risking their lives attending to Covid-19 patients without the necessary requirements and they have turned out to be victims. After the ministry scrapped the flexible working hours, nurses have been crowding health institutions and have been exposed further to the deadly virus.”
Dongo said he could not see any chance of government improving local health institutions as there was little that was being done to stop looting of funds.
“Government is losing millions from funds which are meant for reviving the health sector and not much has been done to curb corruption and no efforts have been put forward to recover losses from corruption,” he said.
He said if government did not address the plight of health workers in the wake of coronavirus, there would be a serious crisis in the health sector which would result in many deaths.
Last year, the ministry of Health and Child Care came into the spotlight more than any other government ministry owing to the deadly global Covid-19 pandemic.
The first Covid-19 case was recorded in March, but government response was marred by confusion as authorities, frontline workers and the general public lacked knowledge on the pandemic. The poor state of local health institution was also an issue of concern in dealing with coronavirus.
Government did not have enough funds for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other needs in fighting the pandemic and underpaid health workers retreated and later withdrew their services out of fear of the virus and also in demand of better compensation. This resulted in a three-month-long nurses’ strike which further disrupted health delivery service.
In the midst of the raging pandemic and without health workers at hospitals, Zimbabwe recorded a spike in the number of mortalities in hospitals including stillbirths and maternal deaths. Non-critical patients were turned away from health institutions as the entire health system hurtled towards collapse.
Zimbabwe received funding from donors, including $60 million from the European Union and $45 million from the UK, towards fighting the coronavirus pandemic. But, despite this intervention from donors, there was no significant improvement to the health system in terms of infrastructure and drugs availability in health institutions.
Obadiah Moyo, former Health minister, was fired for inappropriate conduct after he allegedly awarded a US$60 million tender to controversial businessman Delish Nguwaya’s Drax International. Moyo was fired after an outcry from the members of the public and other civic society groups who accused him of corruption.
In order to save the health ministry from collapse, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga as the new minister of Health and Child Care.
In his pledge as the new minister, Chiwenga vowed to “restore dignity” and revive the collapsing ministry. But the disquiet among health staff seemed to increase with nurses’ demonstrations and strikes for better wages and working conditions continuing and even worsening under the retired general’s watch.
Apparently irked by this lack of discipline, the former soldier deployed military tactics to force striking nurses back to work. He ordered all striking nurses struck off the government payroll as punishment for calling for better wages, an action that sunk the workers’ morale deeper. The disgruntled health workers then approached the High Court for reprieve.
As Health minister, Chiwenga failed to invest in workers retention policies since the ministry is facing critical shortages of doctors. His intimidation tactics rather scared away health workers who sought employment abroad, further crippling the under-staffed health sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Chiwenga would himself fly out of the country occasionally to seek treatment, sending wrong signals about his confidence in a health system he superintends over.
The Health ministry also appeared at sea on how to deal with private health players who seemed to have taken advantage of the Covid pandemic to milk desperate citizens of their money. They especially charged a leg and an arm for Covid tests, most of which were fake.
As the Health minister, Chiwenga failed to deal with the flouting of tenders in Covid-19 supplies, as