PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGO: 00:01 GMT 11 March 2024

Despotism and Disease – Collapsing Health in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

A new report from Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) on the health collapse of Zimbabwe and its increasing impact on disease in neighbouring states

A new report published today by the health advocacy group Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) highlights the catastrophic breakdown in healthcare services in Zimbabwe and the danger for the region from the diaspora of health-compromised Zimbabweans.

Compiled by American Enterprise Institute’s Dr Roger Bate and AFM’s Richard Tren, the report focuses on the chronic lack of healthcare resources, the widespread malnutrition and the alarming increase in infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

Critically, the authors warn that the HIV crisis in Southern Africa could be exacerbated by Zimbabwe’s health implosion.

The Mugabe government made a considerable investment in healthcare during the first few years of democratic rule and achieved impressive increases in life expectancy and reductions in child mortality.

In recent years however the regime’s despotic rule, which has resulted in state orchestrated violence and the economic ruination of the country has all but destroyed Zimbabwe’s once highly acclaimed healthcare system.

Zimbabweans can now only expect to live to 33 years, 30 years less than in 1988. Their lives today are not only short, but likely to be diseased and brutal.

Malaria and TB were both well under control prior to the economic and social collapse, but are now increasing dramatically. In 2004, the malaria control program only managed to protect 3.4% of households and did not have sufficient budget to purchase even the most basic inputs.

While disease control has broken down countrywide, most Zimbabweans are more vulnerable to disease simply because they lack sufficient nutrition. Mugabe’s catastrophic ‘land reform’ program, a mechanism to retain power in the face of escalating unpopularity, has put agricultural production into free fall.

What food there is (15% of normal, boosted by international food aid), is distributed along political lines with Mugabe’s opponents, including their children, being systematically excluded.

The incidence of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe is one of the highest in southern Africa and the Zimbabwean government’s response has been slow, inadequate and corrupt. The widespread and outrageous use of rape as a tool of political oppression and torture to subjugate or ‘punish’ men and women, the vast majority of whom are black, has worsened the epidemic.

Yet Zimbabwe’s national health problems cannot simply be dismissed as a domestic issue, says Washington DC-based Dr Roger Bate, who spent time in Zimbabwe and the region recently.

According to his findings, the health problems could easily spill over into neighbouring countries as Zimbabweans flee the political violence and poverty for a perceived safer and better life elsewhere.

Regrettably and unwisely, Zimbabwe’s neighbours choose not to recognise the Zimbabwean crisis and have largely refused to give Zimbabwean exiles the recognition, legal status, protection and the humanitarian assistance they deserve.

This means that a growing number of Zimbabwean refugees, many of whom have suffered extensive abuse or torture under the Mugabe regime, are forced into prostitution and to the margins of society. For a region suffering from a severe HIV/AIDS pandemic, the consequences could be catastrophic.

South Africa-based Richard Tren considers that progress cannot be made to restore decent healthcare services and improve welfare until peace and democracy return to Zimbabwe. And with a general election in three weeks, the time for action has arrived.

What is required urgently is for Zimbabwe’s neighbours, and most particularly President Mbeki of South Africa, to put pressure on Mugabe to restore the rule of law and democracy, or to step down. But South Africa’s stance is weak and placatory - Foreign minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma claims that the government would “never” condemn its Zimbabwean counterpart. Change will only take place if democratic, western nations apply pressure on Mbeki to change his policy towards Zimbabwe.

According to Bate and Tren, it is an outrage that the Zimbabwean crisis has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that it now threatens not only the lives of innocent Zimbabweans, but also the ordinary and peaceful citizens of that country’s neighbours.

For further information:

Richard Tren

Director: Africa Fighting Malaria – Johannesburg office

Tel: +27 11 646 6750 Mobile: +27 82 921 1081

E-mail: rtren@fightingmalaria.org

Website: www.fightingmalaria.org

Dr Roger Bate

Resident Fellow: American Enterprise Institute – Washington DC

Director: Africa Fighting Malaria

Tel: +091 202 828 6029

E-mail: rbate@aei.org

To download the report, go to:

www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/Zimbabwe_health_hires.pdf (for the version with high resolution photos – approximately 1.3Mb.)

or

www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/Zimbabwe_health_lores.pdf (for the version with low resolution photos – approximately 500Kb)

Please note there is an underscore _ between Zimbabwe, health and hires/lores.

Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) is a non-profit health advocacy group based in Johannesburg, South Africa and Washington DC. AFM conducts research into the political economy of disease and disease control and more generally on economic and development policy. We focus particularly on malaria, but also conduct research and write about HIV and AIDS, TB and other developing country health problems. For more information, recent papers and articles, please visit www.fightingmalaria.org

EMBARGO: 11 March 2024