President Robert Mugabe has been appointed as the United Nations (UN) goodwill ambassador for health despite a deepening health crisis in Zimbabwe.
The announcement was made by the Director-General of World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a WHO Global Conference on Noncommunicable Diseases in Uruguay.
“I am honoured to be joined by President Mugabe, of Zimbabwe, a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the centre of its policies to provide health care to all”, Dr Tedro said while addressing the conference.
“Today I am also honoured to announce that President Mugabe has agreed to serve as a goodwill ambassador on NCDs for Africa to influence his peers in his region to prioritize NCDs’’, said Dr Tedro.
The honour has come as an irony to the Zimbabwean leader who has been accused of gobbling millions of dollars flying to Singapore for medical check-ups.
President Mugabe, his family and cronies have shunned local hospitals preferring to go overseas for treatment.
Recently vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa was airlifted to South Africa for treatment after he suffered poisoning.
According to a local watchdog, Citizens Health Watch, 90% of healthcare institutions don’t have essential medicines in stock, and there have been sporadic shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, which are supposed to be free for HIV patients in public hospitals.
Some of Zimbabwe’s major public hospitals are so poorly stocked they cannot even provide cotton wool or basic painkillers, according to earlier reports.
