By A Correspondent- A few month after declaring that government was with immediate effect banning health tourism, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has been flown to China for treatment.
ZimEye last night called the vice president’s mobile phone but it was not available and indicated that he was away and on roaming as the voicemail message responded in Chinese.
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Chiwenga, declared that government will no longer avail foreign currency to assist cabinet ministers and other senior officials to globe trot and seek medical treatment in state-of-the-art health facilities outside Zimbabwe.
Addressing journalists in his capacity as Health Minister, Chiwenga is onrecord saying the state had stopped footing the medical bills of all senior government officials in order to maintain the national medical bill..
He said:
“We will not export our patients. We will not make referrals to our patients. It is everybody, ministers. Those who have been going out it is you and me. Is it not it? Altogether but that export bill was too high and that is what we want to do away with.”
The 64-year-old former army general has not been seen publicly for over a week.
Chiwenga, who is also the health minister, pre-recorded speeches delivered during virtual World Aids Day commemorations on December 1.
On that day, he did not attend a cabinet meeting, and higher education minister Professor Aaron Murwira took questions as the acting health minister during a post-cabinet briefing.
A government source said:
“He was very unwell at the end of November, and he cut back on his public appearances. A decision was taken to fly him out to seek treatment.”
George Charamba, the spokesman for the presidency, confirmed Chiwenga was out of the country but insisted that he was on a “state assignment.” He declined to name the country.
Chiwenga has received treatment in India, South Africa and China over the last year after going down with an undisclosed illness which manifested in loss of skin pigmentation, weight loss and an apparent skin irritation which caused him to sit animatedly whilst sweating profusely.
His estranged wife, Marry, a former model, has also been unwell for more than a year. Last week, her lawyers told a court that she needed to fly to South Africa for urgent treatment after she developed deep wounds on both her forearms.
Her doctors say she has “severe lymphoedema and spontaneous formation of abscesses whose origins have not been determined.”
After almost six months being treated in China last year, Chiwenga returned home appearing in fairly good health. He has made at least two trips to China since for review, flying in hired private jets.
Chiwenga said Zimbabwean doctors would be barred from writing referral letters for patients to foreign hospitals, even as Zimbabwe’s health facilities remain incapacitated to carry out certain operations due to years of under-investment by the Zanu PF government.