BY MOSES MUGUGUNYEKI
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is offering land to medical practitioners in private practice drawn from across the country’s 10 provinces.
Close to 372 medical practitioners under the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Zimbabwe Association (MDPPZA) are set to benefit.
MDPPZA is an inclusive national body of medical practitioners in private practice.
The association’s president Johannes Marisa yesterday confirmed that the president had responded to their request for land.
“We wrote a letter to His Excellency President Emmerson as an association [MDPPZA] requesting if the government could give us land and consider our members for import duty exemptions,” Marisa said.
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“I am happy to announce that it took the president at least five days to respond to our request and he has offered us the land.
“Members will have to choose the province where they desire to have the land.
“It should be noted that this land is for agricultural purposes since we indicated that as medical practitioners.”
MDPPZA secretary-general Cletos Masiya urged members to utilise the land that they would have applied for.
“We encourage our members to bite what they can chew,” Masiya said.
“We don’t want situations where members take large tracts of land and fail to utilise it.
“We want to thank the president for this gesture and we promise that we as MDPPZA will contribute meaningfully to the economy.”
The Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries and Resettlement ministry permanent secretary John Bhasera in letters addressed to the Provincial Affairs ministers urged provincial land officers to offer land to MDPPZA members.
“The following private health practitioners under the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Zimbabwe Association expressed their keen interest in towards agriculture transformation and desire to participate towards the Agriculture Recovery Plan,” wrote Bhasera in one of the letters seen by StandardPeople.
“Find attached a letter from the Office of the President for consideration when allocating the land.”
Marisa said the private medical sector was willing to augment’s goverment’s efforts in addressing the healthcare system.
“We are ready to chip in and assist just like what we are doing in the Covid-19 response programme,” Marisa said.
“Government embraced private players in the vaccination roll-out and look at the results, they are amazing.
“I think we are the best in southern Africa and we are seventh in Africa in terms of Covid-19 vaccination roll-out.”
Masiya said the coming in of private players had eased pressure on public health institutions.
“I think we have seen an increase in the number of people that are being vaccinated on a daily basis,” he said.
“We no longer have those long queues at vaccination points, thanks to the involvement of private medical players.”
However, private medical players in some provinces are yet to start vaccination and Marisa blamed that on logistical challenges.