“Zanu PF has failed to provide health care, we must” – no, remove Zanu PF

The trouble with Zanu PF apologists like you Hopewell Chinono is that they are incapable of thinking logically.

"Ultimately the responsibility for health care in Zimbabwe lies with the State, but until the State has fully grasped that reality, we can do what is within our means because the people who are dying are our kith and kin," you say.

"It is shameful for the rest of the world to watch our health delivery system become a death trap whilst we claim to be an educated nation.

"In the event that we don't get a buy-in from government, we can come up with other plans that can help save lives.

"After talking to doctors working at the four major hospitals, it was clear to me that the doctors do not trust the health authorities either, so the best thing will be to get a logistics company to do this for free."

1. Zimbabwe's health service did not collapse in the last week or month but has been in decline these last 38 years. If it is the state's responsibility to provide health care, as you readily admit, and the said State has failed to "fully grasp that reality" in the last 38 years; what makes you believe they will ever do so?

2. It is the donor community that has carried the burden of Zimbabwe's health, education, food aid and many other areas which would have totally collapse a long time ago. The tragic reality is that the more the outsiders helped the more the Zanu PF government neglected its duty and responsibility. It is a matter of record that the donors sourced and pay for up to 80% of Zimbabwe's medicine is in some areas. Even with the best will in the world, there is a limit to what the donors can do especially when the Zimbabwe government authorities are known to seek health care outside the country and waste vast fortunes of luxuries.

3. The suggestion that individual Zimbabweans can take-up the challenge of sourcing and paying for all the national medical needs is laughable. With unemployment in the country a nauseating 90%, Zimbabweans in the country are in no position to pay for the medicine. And Zimbabweans is the diaspora are already doing their best to keep the nation ticking and will not be able to do much more. But even if the people can be mobilised to make the sacrifice, this can only be a short term solution. We need a cure and not just another painkiller!

4. Zimbabwe is in a serious mess with 90% out of work, 3/4 of the population living on US$30 or less a month, with health care and other basic services all but collapse, etc. We know the root cause of the country's economic problems is the 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule by Zanu PF. We know Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged last year's elections to extend their misrule. We can continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend we do not know about the corrupt and tyrannical misrule but must know it is insane especially when the price for our insanity is now human lives.

The idea that the people of Zimbabwe should find other means to finance public services which should otherwise be provided by the government through their tax payments is absurd. So why are we paying the tax for?

We have this Zanu PF government that has failed to provide basic services such as health care and education because it is corrupt and incompetent. It has remained in power regardless of its pathetic performance record only because the party has rigged elections to stay in power. The solution is not for the people to dig deeper into their pockets to fund basic services; this is not as sustainable as we can. The solution is to get a competent government.

Zanu PF blatantly rigged last July's elections and therefore has no mandate to govern. The party must step down to create the political space to allow the implementation of reforms, followed by the holding of free and fair elections.

The Zanu PF dictatorship is the elephant in the room, we have pretended not to know it for 38 years, and have paid dearly for our folly. This must now stop.