http://www.eubusiness.com/
28 June 2012, 17:06
CET
(HARARE) - The European Union offered Thursday to help Zimbabwe
address
mounting concerns over graft in its diamond sector, only months
after the
industry watchdog lifted a ban on sales.
The EU head of
mission in Harare told AFP after leading the first visit by a
group of
Western diplomats to the eastern Marange mines that the bloc could
help
Zimbabwe set up inspection mechanisms that meet international
standards.
"We note that there is a problem of transparency in the
diamond mining
sector's revenues, which is reflected in the positions that
the Zimbabwe
minister of finance has expressed publicly," Aldo Dell'Ariccia
said.
Concern over Zimbabwe's diamond mines has swung from a global
outcry over a
state-sponsored purge of artisanal diggers to questions about
the trail of
profits from the deposits which are now formally mined for the
global gem
trade.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has complained about
lack of information on
revenue from the diamond sector, raising suspicions
that some of the funds
are bypassing central government
coffers.
"Transparency is a political issue but it is also a technical
issue, that
demands proper capacity to carry out due inspections," said
Dell'Ariccia.
"Therefore, if so requested by the government of Zimbabwe,
the EU could
provide the necessary technical assistance to update, upgrade,
complete the
national installed capacity to carry out proper inspections,"
he said.
The EU envoy led a team of ambassadors from Australia, Belgium,
Canada,
Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany and Spain on the diamond
mines tour
which he said was a fact-finding mission at the invitation of the
Zimbabwe
government.
He described management at one of the firms
Western diplomats visited as
"excellent, really international standards" and
said that the security
standards of the anti-conflict body, the Kimberley
Process, were
"respected".
Zimbabwe had expected to rake in $600
million (480 million euros) from
diamond sales this year, after the global
watchdog in November lifted a ban
that was imposed over military abuses in
the fields, including Marange.
But in the first quarter of 2012, only
about a quarter of the projected
diamond revenue for that period was
received, according to Biti.
Anjin, a company jointly owned by the
Zimbabwe government and a Chinese
firm, and also the largest of the four
diamond mining companies in the
country, had failed to remit its revenue to
the central government, Biti
said.
But an Anjin director told the
diplomats on Tuesday that a payment of $30
million had been made to
government in royalties.
London-based Global Witness in its latest report
suggested Zimbabwe's feared
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) may have
received some $100 million
and a fleet of 200 cars from a Hong Kong-based
businessman in exchange for
diamonds outside formal government
channels.
Biti, who is a member of the former opposition party of Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, has suggested that "there might be a parallel
government
somewhere in respect of where these revenues are
going."
The Marange fields are one of Africa's biggest diamond finds in
recent
years.
The army cleared small-scale miners from the area in
2008 in an operation
that Human Rights Watch says killed more than 200
people.
The EU chief said there had been no major rights incidents there
lately.
A policeman is on trial for the kidnapping of four villagers, one
of whom
later died.
The fact a trial is under way "is something that
demonstrates that there is
a certain change in the reality."
"The
fight against impunity is extremely important for the confidence that
the
people have in the system," said Dell'Ariccia.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
28 June 2012
Western diplomats who toured the Marange diamond
fields on Tuesday were
misled on the revenue generated from the fields, a
pro-democracy activist
said on Thursday.
Dewa Mavhinga, a lawyer and
regional director for the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition, told SW Radio Africa
that as long as the issue of accountability
is not addressed at the diamonds
fields, the truth will never be known.
‘There hasn’t been any proper
information on the revenue flows and no one
knows of the shareholding
structure at Marange because of lack of
transparency and accountability,’
Mavhinga said.
When the Ambassadors from Australia, Belgium, Canada,
Czech Republic,
Denmark, France, Germany and Spain visited the fields this
week, they were
told Anjin has yet to break even and recover the $400
million invested by
the Chinese into the operation.
Munyaradzi
Machacha, a director at Anjin who doubles up as ZANU PF’s
director for
publications, told the envoys that the projection by the
Finance Minister
that earnings from diamond fields would contribute $600
million to state
coffers was incorrect.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti also said recently
that the government is not
receiving any money from the joint venture at
Anjin between Zimbabwe’s army
generals and the Chinese, which was meant to
be a cash-cow for the state.
The 2009 agreement between Anjin and the
government was meant to ensure that
a sizeable portion of profits from the
lucrative alluvial mine went to the
Finance Ministry, but most of the
revenue is going direct to the country’s
military elite.
Finance
Minister Tendai Biti last year pegged the national budget on
potential
remittances of $600 from diamond sales by the Mines Ministry.
But half-way
through the financial year, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
was forced to
admit that only US$25 million of diamond money has been
remitted to
treasury.
Contrary to what Machacha told diplomats that Anjin is yet to
break even and
recover it’s investment, a Mutare based MDC-T MP said there’s
clear evidence
of mass corruption and theft of diamond money.
‘To be
honest, money generated from the diamond fields from 2009 up to date
can
easily surpass the $2 billion mark which is a conservative figure. We
have
ministers from ZANU PF on a property buying spree all over the
country.
‘Recently the Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu gained control of
the Zimbabwe
Allied Banking Group after injecting $22.8 million into the
bank. This is an
individual who earns less than $1,000 a month. Tendai Biti
is also on record
telling us that some people in government were now buying
private executive
jets. This is all money from diamonds fields,’ the MP
said.
The Mines Minister has admitted that Zimbabwe can earn as much as
$2 billion
from diamonds annually. However events unfolding on the ground
suggest that
a sizable percentage of diamonds coming out of Marange is also
smuggled out
of the country by syndicates.
Two months ago, Indian
authorities arrested two men for smuggling $2 million
worth of diamonds from
the Marange field into the city of Surat. Zohra Desai
and Prema Desai
smuggled the diamonds from Zimbabwe through Kenya to Mumbai
and were caught
trying to sell the stones.
Surat is a world diamond trading and cutting
center and was the scene of a
similar arrest in 2008 when Robai Hussain and
Yusuf Ossely were apprehended
with $1 million worth of smuggled Marange
diamonds. The two were sentenced
to four years in prison.
Associated Press
Jun 28, 7:35 AM EDT
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Court officials in Zimbabwe
say two self-confessed
witches who claim to have flown on a magical grain
threshing basket are to
undergo medical and psychiatric
examinations.
Prosecutors said Thursday two women were arrested earlier
this month after
they were found naked in the yard of a home in the town of
Chinhoyi, 110
kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Harare. The women are
charged under
witchcraft laws carrying the penalty of a fine.
In
local belief, the flat, traditional hand-held winnowing basket is
equivalent
to a witch's broomstick in Western fable.
Officials said a Chinhoyi court
on Wednesday set another hearing for July 11
to hear medical reports and
testimony from tribal healers.
The middle aged women claimed the basket
`'ditched" them in the yard after a
naked night ritual nearby.
Belief
in witchcraft and tribal superstition is common in Zimbabwe.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai Karimakwenda
27 June,
2012
The political parties negotiating a roadmap towards elections have
reportedly said President Jacob Zuma’s next visit to Harare as chief
mediator should wait until a final draft of the new constitution is given to
the principal leaders.
ZANU PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo reportedly
said: “It will be useless for
him to come now when parties in the inclusive
government have not yet
agreed.” He also said the delay would not have any
effect on the holding of
general elections.
On Wednesday it was
reported the management committee of COPAC, working on a
final draft of
Zimbabwe’s new charter, had reached agreement on the
remaining contentious
issues. The management committee consists of the same
party representatives
who are negotiators to the GPA.
With pressure groups like the Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) holding street
protests calling for release of the
charter, it appears Zimbabweans are
getting impatient with what WOZA
described as the “bickering” and
negotiating by the political
parties.
Eddie Cross, the MDC-T Secretary for Research and Policy, said:
“Zuma’s
mediation is not necessary as long as ZANU PF is willing to play
ball. The
mediator wants the parties to do as much as possible by ourselves
before his
intervention.”
Cross said there had been a “dramatic turn
of events” this week and
agreement had been reached on the problematic
issues faced by COPAC. He
credited SADC leaders for the development, saying
their resolve at the last
summit in Luanda was responsible.
Cross
said ZANU PF does not inspire any confidence when it comes to doing
what
they agree to, and pointed to the continued violence and arrests of
MDC-T
officials. “But we now have a more sophisticated system of dealing
with
them. We publicise incidents immediately, document them, press charges
and
inform the region and the world. Things have changed,” Cross
said.
Regional leaders resolved last year to send a team to Zimbabwe to
assist the
Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) in moving
forward
towards an election, after it was decided progress had been too slow.
That
team finally arrived in Zimbabwe just last month, but there has been no
word
since.
Rugare Gumbo said ZANU PF’s Politburo and Central
Committee will meet
Thursday and Friday to come up with “a definitive
position” regarding the
elections. Gumbo accused other parties in the
coalition of trying to delay
the next election.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
28
June 2012
An estimated 100,000 residents in Masvingo are reported to have
gone for
three days without water following a burst water pipe. Supplies
were only
reconnected on Thursday.
Press reports quote the Mayor
Femius Chakabuda saying: “One of the pipes
that feed into our tanks burst
and we are rectifying the situation. We
needed four days to repair it and I
am sure by tomorrow (Thursday)
everything will be alright.”
Residents
feared a deadly cholera outbreak because they were using
unprotected water
sources along the Mucheke River. It was reported in May
that Masvingo needs
US$45 million to build a new water system to avert
looming
shortages.
A growing population in the city has meant that the City
Council has to
build a completely new water pumping, conveyance and storage
infrastructure
with a capacity to pump and transport 30 megalitres per day.
Chakabuda said
they would be approaching the government to borrow the money
required.
But it doesn’t look like they will get that money, given
remarks by Finance
Minister Tendai Biti, who last week made it clear that
the government was
cash strapped. He gave the example of the largest diamond
mining firm in
Marange, Anjin, who have not remitted a single cent to the
Treasury.
Revenues from diamond mines in the country are allegedly being
siphoned off
by companies run by the military. To make matters worse the
ZANU PF side of
the coalition government is more focussed on projects like
the building of a
US$100 million ‘spy’ college and the purchase of military
helicopter
gunships from Russia.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
27 June, 2011
The Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) pressure
group have reported that 101
members arrested during peaceful protests on
Wednesday were released without
charge by Bulawayo police later the same
evening. WOZA said many members
were handcuffed while in custody.
The
WOZA members had been held since their arrest Wednesday morning, along
with
three breastfeeding women and three minors who are not WOZA members. A
WOZA
statement said the women were released in groups of 5, as the police
feared
another protest would begin if all were freed at once.
WOZA coordinator
Magodonga Mahlangu was the last to be freed and is believed
to have been
used by the police to try and trace the whereabouts of leader
Jenni
Williams, who they wanted to arrest.
The WOZA members were arrested in
Bulawayo as they conducted a sit-in
protest, calling for the immediate
release of the draft Constitution.
SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel
Saungweme said riot police appear to
have been tipped off about the protests
because there had been a heavy
police presence in Bulawayo Central. The
police were also guarding the
location where a memorial statue of the late
Joshua Nkomo is to be erected.
The site had been designated as the venue for
the WOZA sit-in protest.
WOZA’s sit-in or occupation style protests
started on Monday in Harare,
where WOZA members marched to the parliament
building in two separate
groups, just as they were trying to do in Bulawayo
on Wednesday. Police in
Harare did not disrupt the peaceful
protest.
WOZA said Bulawayo police were “overzealous” and need to be
investigated.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, June 28,
2012 - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR), has, concluded
its special evidence hearings in the case of Potrais
Mpiranya, the Rwandan
genocide fugitive believed to be holed up in Zimbabwe.
Mpiranya, a former
presidential commander during the genocide in Rwanda, is
charged among
others with conspiracy to commit genocide.
The special hearings were
conducted to preserve evidence for future use if
the fugitive is to be
finally arrested.
The ICTR, based in Arusha, Tanzania, has pleaded with
Zimbabwe to apprehend
the fugitive of the genocide that claimed close to a
million lives in 1994.
Last year the tribunal trying suspects of the
Rwandan genocide complained to
the United Nations (UN) Security Council that
it was encountering
difficulties in tracking a top fugitive believed to be
in Zimbabwe.
But Zimbabwe has denied harbouring Mpiranya.
Mpiranya
is said to enjoy the sanctuary of top Zimbabwe army officials who
appear to
be paying back for the role the Rwandan of Hutu origin played in
assisting
the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and its allies during the war in the
Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Mpiranya reportedly recruited Rwandans, who fled their
country after the end
of the genocide, to fight on the side of the Allied
forces.
After the war, Mpiranya reportedly accompanied Zimbabweans troops
and was
given sanctuary in the southern African country.
The Allied
forces comprising Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia fought a brutal
war against
Congolese rebels who were supported by Rwanda, Burundi and
Uganda.
Proceedings for alleged top genocide financier, Felicien
Kabuga, former
Minister of Defence, Augustin Bizimana who are also still on
the run, were
also conducted and concluded.
During the hearings, both
the prosecution and defence produced their
witnesses and testimonies were
recorded.
Once arrested, the Rwandan government wants the three top
suspects, who lead
the ICTR list of the most wanted fugitives to be
transferred to Kigali.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
28/06/2012 00:00:00
by Patience
Nyangowe
THE ZRP will pull all the stops to ensure the planned
constitutional
referendum and new general elections are held in a peaceful
environment,
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri vowed
Thursday.
Addressing a pass out parade for some 441 police recruits at
Morris Depot,
Chihuri said foreign “detractors” were closely monitoring the
on-going
constitutional reforms and would use any disturbances in the next
elections
to declare the country a police state and maintain economic
sanctions.
Zimbabwe is currently writing a new constitution as part of a
raft of
reforms agreed under the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Once
completed,
the charter would be put to a referendum, leading to new
elections.
Chihuri said the ZRP would ensure the referendum and the
elections are held
in a peaceful environment to “prove the country’s
detractors wrong”.
The GPA parties agree the coalition government is no
longer workable but
continue to bicker over the timing of new elections.
President Robert Mugabe
has been pushing for the elections to be held this
year but his rivals
insist political reforms must be completed to ensure a
credible ballot.
The coalition government was formed after violent but
inconclusive elections
in 2008. MDC-T leader and current Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai pulled
out of the presidential run-off, accusing elements
in the security services
of unleashing violence against his supporters in a
bid to help Mugabe retain
power.
Meanwhile, in a speech full of
references to the Bible, the ZRP chief also
insisted that senior police
officers were right to back government policies
such as indigenisation and
the land reform programme.
“I am aware that the Zimbabwe Republic
Police is being vilified for
supporting people oriented policies by the
government such as the
indigenisation and the land reform programme,” he
said.
“However, as an organisation, we shall continue to support these
policies
despite the unwarranted smear campaign.
“Even the Holy
Bible, in the book of Jeremiah Chapter 3 verse 19, enjoins us
to support our
leaders who jealously fight and safe guard out heritage.”
Chihuri urged
the police graduates to shun corruption.
“The society considers you, and
rightly so, to be reservoirs of honesty,
uprightness and austerity. To this
extent, you should uphold the virtues of
morality by guarding against being
corrupted by unruly members of the
society,” he said.
“The book of
Titus Chapter 1 verses 7-8 is instructive in this regard when
it says, and I
quote, ‘since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he
must be blameless
not overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to
drunkenness, not violent,
not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be
hospitable, one who loves
what is good, and who is self-controlled, upright,
holy and disciplined’.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/Chihuri%20turned%20police%20event%20into%20political%20rally.pdf
MDCSA
TODAY
Thursday 28th June 2012
The ZANU PF political commissar who is
currently acting as the chief of
police recently turned a police event into
a ZANU PF rally where he made a
link between a failed politician and a
professional police force.
In his comments he seemed to suggest that the
ZRP under his leadership was
doing its best to maintain peace in the country
and only those who had
failed to win elective office were against him and
his organisation.
It is a bad sign in itself that the head of what should
be a non partisan
state organisation concedes that there are people who are
unhappy with the
way the police are working. Instead of quiet introspection
Chihuri takes to
a public podium and makes false statements about the
police.
Chihuri of all people in the country knows who the real failed
politician
is. After all Robert Mugabe reports to Chihuri and his gang
members in army
uniforms.
A failed politician is one who relies on
the abuse of state power to stay in
elected office. He cannot stomach a
scenario where voters are allowed to
make their choice of leader in an
environment that is free from violence,
intimidation, threats, partisan food
distribution and coercion.
Chihuri has managed to turn a once exemplary
police force into one of the
most corrupt, violent and partisan police
entities in the world. He is one
of the biggest failures in the country.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Written by Pindai Dube
Thursday, 28 June
2012 12:37
TSHOLOTSHO - Cabinet has set up a committee to
investigate cases of
politicisation of food aid in rural areas.
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said this yesterday during a tour of
Matabeleland
where pro-Zanu PF government officials and militants are
accused of blocking
food aid to starving MDC supporters.
“The Cabinet has already set up a
taskforce to investigate and deal with the
issue of food politicisation,”
said Tsvangirai.
“This food is for every Zimbabwean and we want to make
sure that deserving
people in rural areas benefit regardless of the parties
which they support,”
Tsvangirai told journalists in Tsholotsho after
commissioning a United
Nations Children’s Emergency Fund-funded water
sanitation and hygiene
programme.
Tsvangirai said the poor state of
roads in rural areas made it difficult for
government and aid agencies to
transport food to starving villagers.
Government recently announced an
extension of a state-funded grain loan
scheme to March next year to cushion
villagers whose crops were affected by
drought.
Under the scheme,
households facing food shortages are supposed to access
grain from
state-owned Grain Marketing Board. Areas facing food shortages
include parts
of Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland South and North and some
parts of
Midlands province.
Recently, human rights group Zimbabwe Peace Project
(ZPP) claimed hundreds
of Zimbabwean villagers were going hungry after being
denied food aid.
Some were forced to denounce their political parties in
return for
assistance as Zanu PF militants continue to wage a war of
attrition against
perceived political enemies, according to
ZPP.
Tsvangirai’s MDC also accuses Zanu PF of using local councillors,
village
heads and traditional chiefs to scratch the party’s supporters in
rural
areas from government food lists that are used when distributing aid.
http://www.voanews.com
27 June
2012
Blessing Zulu | Washington
Zimbabwean Finance
Minister Tendai Biti has formulated a plan dubbed the
Zimbabwe Accelerated
Re-Engagement Economic Program in an attempt to
convince the International
Monetary Fund to provide the much-needed
financial assistance to
Harare.
The IMF Article Four team that ended its 14-day mission in
Zimbabwe this
week indicated that it will not restore funding to the country
until it
clears its outstanding debts.
Zimbabwe owes the IMF about
US$200 million.
The country’s external debt has also ballooned to US$9
billion dollars. Biti
told VOA that the Article Four meetings are routine
and carried out to
assess Harare’s economic performance.
The IMF has
estimated that returning Zimbabwe to the economic level where it
stood in
the mid-1990s could take as mush as US$45 billion over the next 5
years.
The inclusive government in Harare has been struggling to
raise funds for
reconstruction.
Western donors and multilateral
institutions like the IMF and World Bank
have been holding back aid, waiting
for more reforms, especially on respect
for human rights, restoration of the
rule of law and governance in general.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Farmers here have resorted to selling
their maize at a pathetic price of $2
a bucket amid concerns that the Grain
Marketing Board is giving them a raw
deal.
27.06.1210:56am
by Sofia
Mapuranga
They told The Zimbabwean it was better to sell their
maize at $2 rather than
have their money tied up by the GMB “who take
forever to pay.
“Last season, GMB paid us very late and also a pathetic
amount for our
maize. We ended up regretting taking our maize there,” said
Gogo Sheila
Matake (62).
She said traders, mostly from Harare,
offered food and clothes in exchange
for maize.
Fibeon Mwayera from
Ward 13 in Murehwa said he decided to sell his maize
after realising that
failure to do so would see his crop destroyed by pests.
“Storing the
maize is a challenge since I cannot afford the chemicals that
safeguard my
crop from being eaten by pests. It is wiser for me to sell my
maize now,” he
said.
Maria Ruchima (32) from Budiriro 5 said she had acquired almost two
tonnes
of maize from barter trade with the Murehwa farmers.
“I take
clothes and sometimes foodstuff to the farmers and they give me
maize. For
example, I give a farmer an empty 20 litre bucket and they give
me one and
half buckets of maize,” said Ruchima.
“I then transport the maize to
Harare at night because to do this during the
day is very expensive as the
police harass us and we end up paying them
bribes at every roadblock,” she
said. “I sell the maize at $4 a bucket and
that is how I make my living.”
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
28/06/2012 00:00:00
by
NewZiana
THE Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) has slammed
the government
for spending US$27 million dollars on wheat imports while
failing to fund
local production of the crop.
In April this year,
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made and his Finance
counterpart Tendai Biti
pledged to release US$20 million to help farmers
acquire inputs for the
winter wheat crop but the facility was never made
available.
GMAZ
chairman Tafadzwa Musarara said the country had imported 45.1 million
tonnes
of wheat in the first five months of the year.
"This means that of the
US$27 million remitted outside the country, US$18
million benefited
respective foreign wheat farmers," he said.
"This flies in the face of
government's failure to raise US$20 million for
the 2012 winter wheat
season," he said.
The government is importing wheat from Asian countries,
Russia, Turkey and
Mozambique.
Wheat production is at its lowest as
the government and agriculture
stakeholders continue to fail to put in place
effective plans to boost
production of the cereal.
High production
costs coupled with failure by farmers to access agricultural
inputs and
shortage of power for irrigation continue to present obstacles
for wheat
producers.
The government had set a target of 26,000 hectares for wheat
this season but
this has most likely not been met, with estimates that land
planted might be
around 10,000 hectares.
Last season only 14,100
hectares were planted against a target of 70,000
hectares, with only 41,000
tonnes of the crop being harvested when the
country requires 400,000 tonnes
annually.
The government is still allowing duty free importation of wheat
to address
shortages due to failure to produce adequate
quantities.
GMAZ argues that continued free importation is stifling local
production of
the crop as there was no incentive for farmers when imports
were coming in
cheaper.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
28/06/2012 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
MARTERNITY fees will be scrapped at all government
hospitals beginning next
week as the government moves to improve maternal
and child health care and
end the detention of new mums at some across the
country for failing to pay
the fees.
Charging of maternity fees has
also been blamed for the country’s relatively
high maternal and child
mortality rates, prompting a campaign for their
removal by Deputy Prime
Minister Thokozani Khupe and other senior government
officials.
The
director of preventive services in the Ministry of Health, Gibson
Mhlanga,
told reporters in Harare Wednesday that all government provincial
and
central hospitals would stop charging the fees beginning next
week.
“Provincial and central hospitals in big cities Harare and Bulawayo
are
expected to scrap off maternal user fees starting July 1 though we have
not
yet received the $10 million from the Ministry of Finance,” he
said.
“We hope that the money comes quickly to our ministry such that we
run the
service quickly as well. We have to avoid cases of mothers giving
birth at
home because of failure to pay maternal user fees. We are patiently
waiting
for the Ministry of Finance to issue out the funds as soon as
possible.”
Zimbabwe’s health sector suffered a dramatic decline because
of
under-investment over the last decade as the country battled a serious
economic crisis made worse by the withdrawal of key donor
support.
Worst hit by the crisis were people in rural areas, particularly
women and
children, who struggled to access life-saving maternal and child
health
care.
According to Unicef, the collapse of health care
meant that a woman’s
lifetime risk of dying of pregnancy complications
stands at 1 in 42, and of
every 1,000 live births, 80 children die before
reaching age 5.
“There is no doubt that the poorest women and children
have borne the brunt
of the decline in health service delivery over the past
decade,” UNICEF
Representative in Zimbabwe Dr. Peter Salama said early this
year.
“However, significant progress has been made in recent years.
Abolishing
user fees for pregnant women and children under 5 and
strengthening the
quality and reach of services will save even more
lives.”
Meanwhile, scrapping of user-fees was one of the key aspects of
the Health
Transition Fund established by the government and international
development
partners last year.
The Fund is expected to raise US$400
million which would be used to
re-strengthen the country’s health delivery
system and ultimately save the
lives of more than 30,000 children under age
5 and pregnant women.
