Deputy Minister of Health and Childcare, Sleiman Kwidini, has said that Zimbabweans are “very happy” with the services at public hospitals, dismissing concerns about the struggling healthcare system as just talk on social media.
Kwidini made the comments last Wednesday during a question-and-answer session in the National Assembly.
He was responding to Chivi South MP, Felix Maburutse (ZANU PF), who had asked him to explain comments made by Youth Empowerment Minister Tinoda Machakaire on X (formerly Twitter).
Machakaire had urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to visit public hospitals in person to see for himself how bad the situation is. Said Maburutse:
Social media is portraying a negative picture of the status of our healthcare. May the minister update the House on the government policies and programmes that have been done so far and the roadmap in improving healthcare?
In response to Maburutse, Kwidini said the government has made great progress in the health sector since 2018. He said:
On the part of social media, indeed, people on social media always talk about what is not happening in the ministry but as the ministry, we are doing wonders since 2018, to make sure the citizens receive quality care.
What we are doing is only known by the patients, not the social media participants. As we speak right now, our citizens are very happy with the service delivery that we are giving. As we speak, in the first 100 days…
I was on the way to say the complaints were coming from social media. No actual person has come to the Ministry to complain directly to the Minister.
Nevertheless, as we speak and as I said, the ministry has improved a lot in terms of service delivery. As we speak, from the first 100 days of the first quarter of 2025, we managed to change some hospital equipment in the sixty-three districts; that is, x-ray machines, theatre beds and so forth.
We are working on other equipment that will be installed as soon as possible.
This minister is lying.