MLF applauds WHO over demotion of Mugabe

Mthwakazi Liberation Front has hailed the World Health Organisation for demoting president Robert Mugabe after he had been breifly appointed a Goodwill ambassador.

The party said if the world had leaders like Tredos Adhanom, leaders who know there are human to make mistakes, leaders who listen to people they lead and leaders who are not shy to rectify their mistakes, the earth could be the better place to live in.

"As MLF and Mthwakazi nation, we would like to applaud the WHO for their listening ears towards the cries of appointing the Genocider and Dictator Robert Mugabe as a Goodwill Ambassador. Looking at the goal of building a better, healthier future and striving to combat diseases on people, all over the world, their appointment of Mugabe had disturbed us a lot," said the party in a statement.

"Provision of basic health care services is patchy in Zimbabwe. Medical facilities have particularly suffered from a shortage of drugs, though recently hospitals have been reporting better medicine stocks again. In the recent years the WHO had correctly reported that the health system of Zimbabwe had declined so badly that trained medical staff was leaving the country each day for greener pastures around the globe as the government of Robert Mugabe was failing to pay for their services."

The party said according to the report by WHO, in the period between 2000 and 2010, Zimbabwe had fewer than two doctors for every 10,000 people, around 80% of posts for midwives were vacant in the public sector, which put millions of lives in danger.

"WHO reported that almost over 1million people aged 15 or above were infected with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and life expectancy in Zimbabwe had dropped to below 49 years in 2009. On the other hand, the United Nations Children's Agency reported that one in three children in Zimbabwe suffered from chronic malnutrition, yet at one stage, the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) was feeding at least half of Zimbabwe's population," MLF said.

"It was therefore strange to learn that the same organisation that had reported the serious decline of healthcare in the so-called Zimbabwe had appointed the very same person behind the decline of healthcare in that country as an ambassador of goodwill. Our understanding of the Goodwill Ambassador, he/she is a person who advocates for a specific cause on the basis of their notability. He/she delivers goodwill or promotes ideals from one entity to another, or to a population."

"Did WHO find Mugabe to be the suitable person to advocate for the well being of people considering their recent findings on the health system of Zimbabwe? That could put WHO on the serious spotlight as a puppet organisation because that could defy all the reports it has published about the health system of Zimbabwe. No one in any part of the world is unaware that Mugabe constantly flies out of Zimbabwe to get medical attention and so on which grounds could he be an ambassador of goodwill? Mugabe has never been as a good leader and a role model that WHO had thought of him to be."

The party said outside the healthcare issues, Mugabe's hands are dripping with the blood of over 80 000 Mthwakazi people that he killed between 1983/87 periods.

"Whether or not the genocide is well known worldwide, as MLF, we believe the WHO is well aware of that and that simply disqualifies him as an ambassador of goodwill. In 2009, Dr. Gregory Stanton who heads Genocide Watch in Washington DC declared that the Gukurahundi killings were simply a Genocide and there absolutely nothing to debate about on that regard. We believe WHO knows all this and they should consider it when they thought about appointing Mugabe," MLF said.

"Anyway, we welcome the decision that WHO has taken to reverse their decision."