Opinion / Columnist
ED asked to stop wasting US$400 m on overseas heath care - gave a middle finger reply
01 Sep 2019 at 06:24hrs | Views
Health minister Obadiah Moyo has disclosed that the country is losing about $400 million annually on overseas medical treatments.
"Having our own up to standard facilities will make wonders and no-one will be airlifted out of the country for health treatment and I have shared this with the President," Moyo said.
So, Minister Moyo thinks the idea of spending the millions squandered sending the chefs out of the country for their health care would be better spend on local health care had never occurred to Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF leadership? How naïve!
There are basically two reasons why Zanu PF have allowed the local health care facility collapse:
a) The chefs, from both sides of the political divide, have continued to enjoy a five-star health care service or be it in SA, India, China, Singapore, etc. instead of within Zimbabwe. So whilst we the masses have suffered greatly from the country's collapsed health care, the Chefs have not.
b) In Zimbabwe going shopping in New York, studying in London, having your health check in Singapore, having a honeymoon in LA, etc. are all status statements. One can only imagine the disappointment on Grace Mugabe and her daughter, Bona's, faces if they were to hear that there was a local hospital in Harare offering the same five-star service after all the money they had spend when Bona her baby in Singapore! And so, the poorer the local service the weightier the symbolism.
c) Yes, it is very expensive to send the chefs out of the country for all these health care trips but what of it! It does not cost the chefs themselves a dollar, the taxpayer pays it all. Indeed, health care has become just another excuse for the chefs to raid the public coffers.
President Mnangagwa has just returned from a trip to Japan. He flew there in a hired jet that reportedly costed US$17 million. He probably ordered the jet just hours after Minister Moyo comments above - there was the middle finger reply!
"Having our own up to standard facilities will make wonders and no-one will be airlifted out of the country for health treatment and I have shared this with the President," Moyo said.
So, Minister Moyo thinks the idea of spending the millions squandered sending the chefs out of the country for their health care would be better spend on local health care had never occurred to Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF leadership? How naïve!
There are basically two reasons why Zanu PF have allowed the local health care facility collapse:
a) The chefs, from both sides of the political divide, have continued to enjoy a five-star health care service or be it in SA, India, China, Singapore, etc. instead of within Zimbabwe. So whilst we the masses have suffered greatly from the country's collapsed health care, the Chefs have not.
b) In Zimbabwe going shopping in New York, studying in London, having your health check in Singapore, having a honeymoon in LA, etc. are all status statements. One can only imagine the disappointment on Grace Mugabe and her daughter, Bona's, faces if they were to hear that there was a local hospital in Harare offering the same five-star service after all the money they had spend when Bona her baby in Singapore! And so, the poorer the local service the weightier the symbolism.
c) Yes, it is very expensive to send the chefs out of the country for all these health care trips but what of it! It does not cost the chefs themselves a dollar, the taxpayer pays it all. Indeed, health care has become just another excuse for the chefs to raid the public coffers.
President Mnangagwa has just returned from a trip to Japan. He flew there in a hired jet that reportedly costed US$17 million. He probably ordered the jet just hours after Minister Moyo comments above - there was the middle finger reply!
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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