AS the second anniversary of the Sugar Tax — introduced in 2024 — approaches, the public is entitled to a simple, urgent answer to a straightforward question: where are the cancer machines this levy was explicitly created to fund?
The tax, designed to curb sugary drink consumption and finance critical healthcare infrastructure, has instead become a symbol of governmental opacity and unmet promises.
With every passing month, the gap between the tax’s stated purpose and its tangible outcomes widens, eroding public trust while patients in desperate need of diagnosis and treatment continue to suffer. The timeline of this saga is a chronicle of delay. Introduced as a progressive health measure, the tax was meant to create a dedicated funding stream for oncology equipment.
Yet, nearly two years later, not a single machine procured through this mechanism has been installed and made operational.
In his August 2025 Mid-Term Budget Review, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube reported that resources amounting to ZiG685,8 million (approximately US$25,4 million) had been mobilised from January to May 2025. This admission, while acknowledging some collection, immediately begged the question: why was this substantial sum not already translating into purchased equipment?
The mystery deepened with the 2026 national budget. Ncube did not disclose how much had been collected from June 2025 to date, creating a concerning information blackout. He offered only the scant reassurance that procurement was “underway”, with US$5,3 million paid to suppliers for a list of specific equipment, including MRI machines, spectrometers, and analysers destined for major hospitals such as Parirenyatwa and Mpilo.
While naming the equipment is a step, it is not a substitute for a full accounting. The government’s selective disclosure feels less like transparency and more like an attempt to placate the public with technical details while withholding the crucial financial picture.
This lack of transparency is unacceptable and fuels public skepticism. Where is the totality of the money collected? If US$25,4 million was confirmed by mid-2025, how much has been added in the subsequent critical months? Why has the procurement process been so protracted when the health crisis is immediate?
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The very rationale for the tax — addressing the burden of non-communicable diseases such as cancer — demanded expediency. Each day of bureaucratic delay is a day where citizens face preventable suffering and death. The government’s failure to prioritise this timeline is a profound failure of its duty of care.
Firstly, we demand that the ministry of Finance immediately publishes a comprehensive, audited statement of all Sugar Tax revenue collected since its inception, showing exactly where every dollar has been allocated.
Secondly, it must provide a publicly accessible, detailed procurement timeline for the cancer equipment, with regular progress updates until installation is complete.
The time for excuses is over. Treasury must account for the money, and deliver the machines. Our people are dying.
