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Johannes Marisa Correspondent
Sanctions have been talked about in Zimbabwe and these measures have been a thorn in the flesh for the entire citizenry.
Many people think the illegal sanctions imposed on our beautiful country are only for the ruling elite yet the effects are devastating on the entire nation.
Virtually all sectors of the country have either been directly or indirectly affected by sanctions and the health sector is not spared.
Europe and its allies imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe and these are economic and financial penalties applied by other countries against the Government and its officials.
The reasons for the imposition of the so-called targeted sanctions were human rights violations and lack of constitutionalism.
Everyone knows that the root cause of the sanctions was the historic fast-track Land Reform which Government embarked on since July 2000.
The Government targeted at least eight million hectares for redistribution which was owned by just around 4 500 white farmers.
Trouble was traced back to the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 which legalised land segregation thus designating a half of the country’s land for whites who by that time made up only five percent of the entire population.
The turn of the millennium saw many European countries joining hands with the United States to impose what were called targeted sanctions. The US went to the extent of promulgating an act, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 when George W Bush was still the president.
This act gave powers to the Treasury secretary of US to oppose or vote against any extension by any institutions of any loan credit or guarantee to the Government.
The American government was also to oppose any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe or any other international financial institutions.
The EU followed with sanctions in 2002 by common position 2002/145/CFSP in relation to what it claimed was an escalation of violence and intimidation of political opponents and harassment of the independent press.
There was an asset freeze and travel ban of targeted individuals and entities.
There were mixed feelings about how the sanctions were going to affect Zimbabwe as a nation with opposition politicians seeing them as screws against the ruling party.
It is a sad reality that the sanctions are now affecting the general populace.
The health service delivery is reeling under the same sanctions which have rattled Zimbabwe for close to 22 years now.
Zimbabwe trains some of the best medical practitioners in the world, a development which puts the entire country on the world map. The country, however, does not have a robust health service delivery and it is incontrovertibly true that sanctions are implicated in the so-called crummy health service delivery.
Many people fail to appreciate both the direct and indirect effects of sanctions on the health sector. The following are some of them:
Exodus of health care workers
The country’s employment levels and the ability to offer basic goods and services has been negatively impacted by the country’s prolonged fall in long term capital inflows, ultimately resulting in a drop in the standard of living.
The country experienced massive de-industrialisation and economic stagnation. The national fiscus has not managed to tune to the Abuja Declaration of 2001 which calls for all African countries to allocate at least 15 percent of the national Budget to the health sector.
Because of chronic underfunding, health workers have exited the country for greener pastures. Many health institutions are understaffed and a lot of experienced workers are leaving the country en masse.
Threat to public health
Various institutions and governments that were running projects in Zimbabwe were forced to abandon the developments for example DANIDA that halted vertical health programmes worth US$29,7 million in 2000.
The Swedish government withdrew its HIV/AIDS programmes and Water and Sanitation and Health education in 2001.
How many people then died of AIDS as a result of such measures. HIV patients need to go for routine tests which include CD4, viral load, full blood count, liver tests and kidney tests among others. Without donor support, many people cannot afford to have the tests done in private.
Obsolete hospital equipment
Hospital equipment has been in use for some time and spare parts used to come from the suppliers from Britain, US, Canada and many other European countries. Sanctions derailed the repairs of a lot of equipment as direct purchasing is prohibited from many European countries.
Banks that were placed under sanctions like ZB bank could not transact on their own and in 2017, Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) was slapped with a US$385 million fine by America Office of Foreign Assets Control for transacting on behalf of ZB Bank.
Reduced Foreign Direct Investment
Foreign Direct Investment encourages economic growth and job creation. FDI has an impact on the country’s balance of payments.
The bad perception of the country and the subsequent sanctions have a negative bearing on investor confidence. Zimbabwe has witnessed sluggish investment in the health sector.
The country could be having medical tourism by now considering the favourable climate that exists here.
This means the health sector remains poorly developed and the pharmaceutical sector is limping as well.
Research has been slowed down in the midst of calamitous diseases like the Covid-19 pandemic. Financial injection is required to keep pace with the research dynamism of medicine.
Energy and power
Zimbabwe has witnessed significant power outages because of inadequate electricity generation.
With incessant break downs of the generators at Hwange, electricity shortage is now the new normal. However, the effects on the health are insurmountable with surgical procedures being cancelled, mortality being higher in High Care Units and drugs losing potency because of loss of cold chain.
Zimbabwe is struggling to repair the generators because the parts are supposed to be from Britain, Italy and other European countries.
The shortage of money because the lines of credit are difficult to access is becoming a challenge as the country can be opposed by the superpowers as depicted in ZIDERA. Life has thus become difficult for the entire nation
Water and Sanitation
The collapse of water and sanitation infrastructure is largely attributed to underfunding which can be traced to the sanctions that closed the easier lines of credit. In 2008, Zimbabwe experienced cholera outbreak which claimed lives. There has been an increased demand of safe water to avert water-borne diseases like typhoid, dysentery, cholera, nevertheless, the ageing water treatment plants in the country cannot cope with the demand. Many people therefore unnecessarily lose their lives due to treatable diseases.
It is time that sanctions be lifted if our health delivery service is to improve.
Sanctions are there for real and their effects will continue to pound us for a long time. We will continue to have higher mortality rates, higher incidence rates, higher prevalence rates and morbidity will sky-rocket.
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