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A Zimbabwean government spokesman who accused doctors of being “medical killers” after four ministers died from coronavirus has sparked outrage in a country plagued by the Covid pandemic.
Government Information Secretary Nick Mangwana said on Twitter Sunday that doctors in public hospitals were “political assassins hidden behind medical degrees.”
Four ministers and numerous state officials from ruling ZANU-PF have died from the coronavirus as Zimbabwe’s decrepit health system battles a new wave of infections.
The landlocked southern African country has recorded nearly 32,000 cases of Covid, of which more than 1,000 have been fatal.
The Zimbabwean Association of Physicians for Human Rights (ZADHR) said Mangwana’s remarks constituted “continued persecution of doctors”, which was likely to destabilize the health sector.
Itai Rusike, an activist for a coalition of organizations called the Community Health Working Group, said that “uninformed allegations” carried “serious political overtones and (a) a threat to the safety” of doctors.
The Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Physicians Association called Mangwana’s remarks “regrettable”.
Responding to the backlash, Mangwana said the tweet was his personal opinion and that he “had no intention of offending a doctor or naming any of them.”
“Since it caused such an offense, I withdraw it and I apologize for any offense caused,” he tweeted on Monday, after deleting the offending messages.
Norman Marara of ZADHR told AFP that if the apology has been accepted, “it is not enough”.
“The government should be seen as applauding our efforts and the positive role frontline health workers are playing in this Covid-19 crisis,” Marara said.
Public anger has escalated over broken promises to boost Zimbabwe’s economy following the toppling of former leader Robert Mugabe in November 2017.
Frustration has increased with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Campaigners welcomed the coronavirus travel restrictions which have forced government officials to gain first-hand experience of Zimbabwe’s struggling health system.
Public hospitals are struggling with a shortage of drugs and other resources purchased with hard currency, and many top doctors and nurses have gone to work overseas.
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