ZIMBABWE’S HEALTH CRISIS: A NATION LEFT TO SUFFER UNDER ZANU PF RULE

Zimbabwe’s health system is dying, just like the people it is meant to save. For 45 years under ZANU PF, hospitals have gone from bad to worse. What should be a place of healing has turned into a place of pain and hopelessness. The system has collapsed completely, and everyone can see it.

A shocking picture has been going around on social media. It shows a patient in a Zimbabwean hospital with a broken leg wrapped in a cardboard box and held together with tape. This is not a story from decades ago — it is happening today. That image tells the truth about how far our country has fallen. Hospitals no longer have the most basic supplies. There are no bandages, no painkillers, and often no doctors. People are suffering and dying in silence.

In the past, Zimbabwe was known for having one of the best health systems in Africa. Today, it is a shadow of what it used to be. Medicines are hard to find. Equipment is old and broken. Most of the doctors and nurses have left the country to look for better lives elsewhere. Those who remain are overworked, underpaid, and hopeless. In many hospitals, there are no specialists at all. People go to hospitals expecting treatment but end up dying because there are no resources to help them.

This disaster is not new. In 2008, Zimbabwe faced one of the worst cholera outbreaks in the world. The disease killed more than 4,000 people and exposed the weakness of the country’s health system. But nothing changed. Between 2023 and 2024, cholera returned and killed another 700 people. How can a nation fail to learn from its own past? How can a government allow the same tragedy to happen again and again?

The truth is simple — the government does not care. Instead of funding hospitals, ZANU PF spends money on luxury cars, parties, and political campaigns. Most of the money keeping hospitals open does not even come from Zimbabwe. It comes from donors in countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Ireland. These countries give money through UNICEF’s Health Development Fund, which supports maternal and child healthcare. Other international organisations like the United Nations Population Fund and Global Fund also provide help. Without these donors, Zimbabwe’s health system would completely collapse.

Reports show that about 25% of Zimbabwe’s health budget comes from foreign donors. That means a quarter of the money used in hospitals is not from our own government. But even this money only goes to certain areas, like HIV/AIDS and malaria. It does not solve the wider crisis affecting all hospitals. And now, even that little help is being reduced. The United States is cutting down its PEPFAR aid, which has supported HIV treatment for years. When that funding stops, many Zimbabweans will be left with no medicine and no hope.

The situation in rural areas is the worst. People walk long distances to clinics that have no doctors or medicine. Pregnant women die while giving birth because there are no midwives or proper equipment. Children die from diseases that could be treated easily in other countries. Zimbabwe’s health system has become a graveyard of dreams and broken promises.

ZANU PF has failed to protect the people. The leaders live in comfort while ordinary citizens die from treatable illnesses. A government that allows its people to be treated with cardboard and tape has no heart and no shame. Zimbabwe has gone backwards, back to the Stone Age. Until the regime changes, our hospitals will remain empty, our doctors will keep leaving, and our people will continue to die — not because they are sick, but because their government has abandoned them.