By Leonnel Mhuka
In a shocking display of misplaced priorities, Acting President Kembo Mohadi was yesterday wheeled out to preside over the handover of just 10 chemotherapy chairs at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo. The chairs, donated by oncologist Dr Mary Nyakabau, are a welcome gesture, but the optics of the event expose the hollow state of Zimbabwe’s health-care system.
While cancer patients across the country struggle without essential drugs, diagnostic equipment, or timely access to treatment, the nation’s second-highest office was reduced to cutting ribbons over furniture.
This stands in stark contrast to Zimbabwe’s regional peers. In South Africa, government policy prioritizes large-scale procurement of cancer treatment machines, with new oncology units opened in major provinces. In Zambia, the government has invested millions into building and expanding cancer hospitals, purchasing radiotherapy machines, and training specialized oncologists. There, health ministers announce multi-million-dollar programs, not donations of chairs.
Yet in Zimbabwe, a whole Vice President is summoned to glorify what should be a routine hospital purchase. The event, broadcast by state media as “plugging a critical gap,” only exposes the absence of serious investment in health infrastructure. Cancer does not wait for ribbon-cutting ceremonies, it kills silently while leaders pose for cameras.
Zimbabweans deserve a health-care system that can diagnose, treat, and support patients, not a publicity circus where high-ranking officials celebrate minor stop-gap donations. If chairs require a Vice President, what will it take to bring functioning cancer machines, adequate chemotherapy drugs, or proper palliative care into hospitals?
