REVELATIONS that corpses are rotting at some of our public health institutions as shocking as they are unacceptable.
This is an abomination of the highest order for a country that prides itself for being on track to achieve upper-middle income status by 2030. It is quite ludicrous for anyone to believe that this so-called second republic train, supposedly heading for 2030, will get to its destination with everyone on board when it is letting corpses rot before they are buried.
The second republic’s “leaving no one and no place behind” rallying call appears hollow under these circumstances, we are afraid to say.
For this train to arrive in 2030 with everyone on board, the so-called “new dispensation” or simply the government navigating it at the moment needs to go back to basics and get them right. Some of these basics are simple: Making sure people have decent roofs over their heads and ensuring access to clean water, modern healthcare facilities, good sanitation, affordable education and enough food.
Sadly, as things stand, none of the basics that could easily drive this nation to the promised land seem to be a priority, given the dire situation obtaining is these critical sectors of our economy.
As recent as yesterday we were being told in a number of NewsDay articles that government is making frantic efforts to feed hungry communities, while dreaming of building residential flats in rural areas, as children are being turned away from school for failure to pay fees and staff shortages are hamstringing operations at public hospitals were corpses are rotting due to power cuts that keep intensifying each passing day.
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Honestly, when we get to a stage where we, as a people in this modern age, are unable to preserve our dead before burial, this is beyond failure.
It can never be overemphasised that we need to respect our dead and the worst we can do is let their corpses decompose in hospital mortuaries because of our incompetency.
The appalling state of our public hospital mortuaries speaks to deeper ills in the Zimbabwean economy, which we believe need to be urgently sorted out if the nation entertains any hope of economic development.
While sorting out these ills, government should concentrate on getting the basics right which is to prioritise key areas such as health in its budgets and making sure that whatever it allocates to these key sectors is properly utilised and not abused or diverted to line up bureaucrats’ pockets.
One of the most glaring examples of abuse of the country’s resources to the detriment of key institutions such as public hospitals is a situation whereby we have homes and institutions that are never cut off the national power grid, while critical establishments such as hospitals endure endless power cuts leading to drugs and corpses rotting.
Zimbabwe is also busy constructing highways and receiving well-heeled investors in mining, yet its hospitals are in such pathetic conditions. Has the country really sunk this low?