Chipinge Health Crisis : as Dr G Mugabe gets louder

For a moment everything was supposed to go on a standstill. Every man, woman and child was supposed to hold their breath in expectation until the last day of the upcoming ZANU-PF Congress. Life had to wait.

But life doesn't wait, and all this corruption talk against their erstwhile partners in crime is too little too late. Had it happened in the early '90s, maybe we would have held our breathe. At the moment all I see is a case of a hyena telling its offspring that it smells like a goat for it to have an excuse to eat it up. Nothing beyond that. And the votes of no confidence are a show of their attitude towards democratic processes.

So, while people engross themselves in these worthless topics the nation sinks deeper in pools of helplessness. The liquidity crissis gets worse, unemployment rises and what do they do to ease the situation? Nothing.

So, while all this is happening, low level ZANU-PF thieves continue to syphone money and services from public institutions, depriving the masses of urgently required services. Ofcourse they have been doing it for years, but what makes this one interesting to me is that it is happening at a time when they are clamouring, making a lot of noise in regards with corruption and greed as if this is a new phenomenon. It is common knowledge that the average civil servant is unable to build a house, school children, buy a vehicle and stay fed. The average income barely covers the basic domestic needs, but at Chipinge District Hospital the case is different. The administrator has become a well- to-do individual who runs a shop financed by money acquired from tender price inflation, transporting goods using hospital vehicles (which are driven by a relative) - did I mention that his wife runs the hospital phamarcy? Chipinge District Hospital services the entire district, but it has one working toilet! The diet is appalling, but I guess this would be obvious at a place that has a single functional toilet. The institution charges $3 a day and also gets money from a pool of donors (Result Based Fund) and yet still fails to deliver. The administrator alone wouldn't pull it off and reliable sources says he is hand and glove with the accountant.

The big question on my mind is: can this all go on without the knowledge of the local Member of Parliament? What of the District Administrator? It would be inconcievable. For an institution like that why have the two not taken action? There is room for speculation...

Is it just me or the activities at Chipinge District hospital mirror the situation in the higher echelons of power? Sometimes I try to imagine what would happen if the MP decided that he had a new candidate for the administrator's post. Surely the finger pointing and corruption accusations would rise. A purge would ensue, but in the meantime, the people of Chipinge suffer.