By Tafara Majada| The death of Agriculture Minister Air Chief Marshall (Rtd) Perence Shiri to suspected Covid-19 on Wednesday should be a wake-up call for the Zanu PF regime to prioritise the health sector, this opinion can assert.
The late Perrence Shiri may his soul rest in peace but it should not be ignored that he is one of the very people who have superintendent over the decline of our health system since independence and the Coronavirus pandemic made it impossible for him to seek foreign treatment as he was accustomed to since independence.
In a Facebook post, MDC youth assembly secretary-general Obey Sithole aptly summed it up saying Shiri and lieutenants’ loot should go towards a vibrant health delivery system.
“The death of Perence Shiri is a warning to the surviving looters that by looting resources for the country’s health sector they will equally be looting the breath of life. Theirs included, no one is immune to death,”he posted.
It is not a secret that Vice President Constantino Chiwenga is fighting ill-health and there is now a puzzle for him to seek treatment in China like he used to.The only convenient facilities available are now local. The health sector in Zimbabwe has seen crippling nurses and doctors’ strikes and at one point Chiwenga threatened nurses with dismissal. Perrence was nowhere near to admonish his confidante that this was ill-advised.
Right now we are battling Coronavirus and we have witnessed that the government sat on its laurels as ventilators which are essential in saving patients suffering from the novel virus are not readily available despite massive looting of Covid-19 funds as seen in the Drax scandal.
It is sad that with the rising cases of infections the government is still adamant about improving the welfare of frontline health workers who are grappling with poor salaries and are now well protected from contracting the deadly virus. The ongoing strike by nurses and doctors will be a huge catastrophe for a country now battling the spike in Covid-19 infections which are not sparing the ruling elite like the departed Shiri.
Shiri has been declared a national hero but his status will not mean anything to ordinary Zimbabwean citizens whose life is at stake because of the corrupt deeds of Shiri and his ilk. It is now time for the Zanu PF regime to make sure that it ponders how best to resuscitate the health sector as the Coronavirus induced lockdown has made it impossible for them to look elsewhere for treatment. While we say its unAfrican to celebrate one’s death,the writer will say maybe Air Chief Marshal(Rtd) Shiri you could have been saved just like UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson did when he was infected with the virus had you prioritise your local health institutions.