MDC welcomes Mugabe's demotion

We commend the World Health Organisation (WHO) for rescinding its earlier ill advised decision to appoint President Robert Mugabe as the body's Goodwill Ambassador for non-communicable diseases in Africa as we duly believe, like the majority of our fellow citizens, that he does not deserve the honour that had been bestowed upon him.

It would have been hypocrisy of the highest order for WHO to maintain the appointment of a President who has authored the debilitation of a once was advanced and vibrant health system into a totally incapacitated and shameful de-branded health sector.

For the past 37 years, President Mugabe has proved that he does not recognise the importance of the health sector and its centrality to national development, having only been bent on running down the health sector through mismanagement and corruption.

Health facilities in Zimbabwe are in such a shameful state that Mugabe himself and his family shun them in favour of foreign health centres. His daughter Bona had to go and give birth in Singapore and recently First lady Grace Mugabe had to jet to SA for a simple medical procedure after spraining her foot.

The majority of Zimbabweans die in silence as they cannot afford the exorbitant fees required by private health institutions. Being sick is now a death sentence for the poor thanks to President Mugabe's misrule.

A shortage of ARVs is threatening to plunge the country into a health crisis while it has become the norm for doctors and nurses to engage in mass action over poor salaries and unsustainable working conditions.

Unless and until Zimbabweans get rid of the inept Zanu PF government, the nation will never realise any prospects of development. That is why we continue to urge all citizens to go out in huge numbers to register as voters so that when elections come next year President Mugabe and his cronies are shown the door. If WHO was able to rescind its decision so can Zimbabweans through the ballot.