THE government’s recent announcement that Treasury had paid US$5,3 million in deposits for cancer treatment machines made for interesting reading, but it also raised more questions than it answered.
We hope the government is telling the truth, particularly its assurance that the country will take delivery of this critical equipment early next year.
We do not believe the announcement was crafted to generate headlines from the suffering and moaning of thousands of citizens patiently waiting for life-saving interventions. For many patients, treatment involves multiple radiotherapy sessions, each costing between US$5 000 and US$10 000, an astronomical figure for ordinary Zimbabweans.
The provision of cancer treatment machines has been on the national agenda for years. The introduction of the Sugar Tax in the 2024 national budget was, according to government, specifically aimed at addressing non-communicable diseases. That context makes the current announcement both significant and overdue.
However, Zimbabweans have grown accustomed to declarations that are often made to ease public anxiety and political pressure rather than deliver tangible results. It is, therefore, reasonable to hope that complaints from beverage manufacturers over the burden imposed by the Sugar Tax did not prompt this sudden statement.
As the public awaits the expected delivery and rollout of cancer treatment machines at major public hospitals, a development that would undoubtedly reduce the cost of care, it is the lethargic pace of implementation that remains deeply worrying.
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The government has been collecting funds since 2024, yet only managed to pay initial deposits two years later. This is a system that has steadily lost citizens’ trust and confidence.
It is a system perceived as lacking sincerity, making it extremely difficult for the public to accept assurances at face value — particularly given the painful history of successive currency experiments that have eroded savings and livelihoods.
Accountability and transparency have long been the government’s Achilles heel. This is not the first time that publicly made announcements have simply fizzled into oblivion. The National Railways of Zimbabwe, for instance, is perpetually being “revived”, with new partners named each time, yet nothing materialises on the ground. What is evident instead is decades of decay and disintegration at the state-owned enterprise.
Similarly, the government’s volte-face ahead of the eventual rehabilitation of the Bulawayo–Victoria Falls highway exposed spirited official denials and misrepresentations about the state of a key economic artery whose importance needs no elaboration.
In the case of cancer treatment machines, public scepticism is compounded by the fact that this is the same administration that presided over the systematic deterioration of the country’s health delivery system, yet now claims to be steering it towards world-class status.
Ultimately, Zimbabwe remains a nation that continues to hope, often against hope, that one day it will witness genuine socio-economic and political transformation, a vision that future generations, too, continue to cherish.