In a remarkable demonstration of frankness for a senior government official, the country’s Minister of Youth, Tino Machakaire put up a heart-wrenching post on his Facebook page, which was directed to President Emmerson Mnangagwa on 5 May 2025. This was just a few days after the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) issued a statement decrying the catastrophic situation, which equally underscored the need for decent work in the health sector.  

He expressed how “deeply concerned” he was by the conditions he witnessed. In his words; “what I saw was deeply moving – a clear indication that many of our people are facing serious challenges.” And he added that “the growing public outcry over our healthcare is not an exaggeration; it reflects the difficult experiences of many citizens.”

ZINA, a PSI affiliate in Zimbabwe, has consistently been a courageous voice demanding decent work for nurses and other health workers, as well as for improvement of the healthcare system to enhance access to quality public health services for the vast majority of people in Zimbabwe. Before Minister Machakaire’s social media post, ZINA had issued a statement highlighting the fact that the government has “failed health workers” and noting that nurses have been “plunged into poverty”.

In the statement, which was signed by Enock Dongo, the ZINA president, the nurses’ union called for an upward salary review as nurses cannot “afford even the most basic necessities of life”, with what they are currently paid.

Dongo also pointed out that “the working conditions in public health institutions are dire”, highlighting how lack of health infrastructure, resources, equipment, drugs and a “chronic shortage of staff” place a heavy burden on nurses. This has a severe impact on their physical, physiological and mental health.

Gamuchirai Masiyiwa captures the state of the health system during the first decade of the country’s independence, thus:

Wards bustling with highly motivated health care workers, readily available medication, decent salaries, a thriving teaching hospital network — this defined Zimbabwe’s health care system in the 1980s. Back then, it was considered a model of efficiency and effectiveness in Africa.

Since the 1990s, a combination of economic structural adjustment programme at the behest of the international financial institutions, sanctions over Blacks’ land reclamation, and reduced public funding of health and care have resulted in the current worrisome state of healthcare delivery.  

Concrete steps have to be taken to roll back this retrogression. This is the time for the Zimbabwean government to rise to the commitment of 15% of annual budgetary allocation to healthcare, in line with the stipulation of the Abuja Declaration.

It is also time, in Zimbabwe and worldwide, to discard neoliberal policies and programmes that have shaped the world for the worse over the last four decades. This socio-economic model only benefits the few rich and their corporations, at the cost of the lives and health of the immense majority of the population, impacting the global South most severely. To ensure universal access to quality healthcare, we must put people over profit and health before wealth.