3 Million Voices
PROFILE 3: Charles (21)
Hauna, Mutasa, Manicaland
At 21, Charles joined the long trek to South Africa, where he started doing odd jobs.
“I could afford to live. It was not the best of life though, especially because I was an illegal immigrant, but we
had to survive. It was better than sitting in Hauna and not being able to do anything.”
“With the money I was getting, I was hoping to enroll at a college and do a vocation course that would help me
start to rebuild my life.”
An only child, Charles found himself on the way back to the place that he had always dreaded to come back to,
his family home in Hauna.
“With the COVID-19 restrictions having come into place in South Africa, life became unbearable and in addition,
the xenophobic sentiments within the community that I lived forced me to think of just going back home. It was
more like there was no other option.”
Back in Hauna, Charles could not bear it and before he knew it, he turned into drugs, and a year later, he is full
time into it.
“My life is ruined, I do not know how I can get back on track. One time I was saving for an education that I did
not get and the next thing, I have no idea where my life is going.”
2.3.1 Our Observation
The two cases highlighted in the above section of the report are in their own, a pointer of the serious socioeconomic rights issues that exist in the country.
While government has denied there is a social, political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, the fact that in just a
year, over 200,000 Zimbabweans were forced to return from foreign countries where they had gone to seek
economic relief, shows the gravity of the numbers of people who had fled the country’s toxic political, economic
and social environment.
The 200,000 returnees have come back to add onto the millions who were already suffering from the
government neglect of social service delivery system.
ZPP identified one key social service delivery area; healthcare and focuses on physical and mental health as
issues whose neglect have had a huge negative impact on the quality of life of Zimbabweans.
2.3.2 Healthcare:
The country’s healthcare system is dysfunctional and with government having failed to adequately invest in the
sector, public health institutions, which are supposed to provide free or subsidized health services, are gravely
incapacitated.
In the end, the only available adequate healthcare services are from private institutions that charge exorbitant
fees that are beyond the reach of many.
Last year, the Insurance and Pensions Commission established that only one in 10 Zimbabweans have medical
cover in a country of over 14 million people.
For 2021, the government allocated ZW$54.7 billion of the national budget’s ZW$360.5 billion to health and
child care and the majority of funding that goes into the health sector is largely by international donors.
For example, ZPP established that government has not invested in service vehicles for health institutions, but has
prioritized buying vehicles for ministry officials.
The majority of service vehicles like ambulances are bought by development partners while support for chronic
diseases like HIV and AIDs, and Tuberculosis is also coming in from international donors.
In some unfortunate instances, low-level corruption at health institutions has led to some deserving beneficiaries
of international donor medication facilities failing to get access.
For example, on 12 April, People Living with HIV and AIDS in Murehwa North were asked to pay up to ZWL40.00
to access medication which they should get for free.
The entire situation presents a serious case of mis-prioritisation that has left Zimbabweans not able to access
their constitutionally guaranteed right to health.
The Zimbabwe health delivery system is built on the constitutional right to health care in Section 76, sub-section
1-4, of the Zimbabwe Constitution, which states that: Every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has the
right to have access to basic health care services, including reproductive health.
A survey by ZPP showed that some public clinics and hospitals are charging about USD5 consultation fee.
ZPP recorded a case at Chipinge Hospital, where an elderly patient died after being denied admission on the
basis that she had not yet paid the USD5 required for consultation.
“We spent several hours moving from one department to the other seeking assistance to no avail. Unfortunately,
she passed away before admission,” said a relative to the deceased.
“After the consultation, you are told there is no medication, even as basic as paracetamol pain killer tablets,”
reports a resident of Highfields, Harare.
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