Residents resist City of Harare, Discovery Ambulance deal

📅 Published: August 16, 2025

📰 Source: newzimbabwe

Curated by AllZimNews.com

In a statement, Harare Residents Trust (HRT) said privatisation of the services is not a panacea to alleviating the challenges in the capital’s health system. “There is a current lobby within the City of Harare for Discovery Ambulance Services to provide ambulance services to residents of Harare, and bill the City of Harare in the process.

This deal is similar to the Pomona Ddumpsite deal in many ways. “Privatisation of public services is not the best way to improve health service delivery,” read the statement.

HRT added that residents are paying for the emergency services through their monthly rentals.

However it is unclear how the funds have been used by council in addressing the health system. “The City of Harare has, since the beginning of the year, been collecting from Harare residents an Emergency Services Levy with the main objective of purchasing ambulances for the city. “Given the number of properties being billed in Harare, it is estimated that $500,000 is being raised monthly from the Emergency Services Levy.

Unfortunately, no ambulance has been bought using that revenue stream,” said HRT.

Discovery Ambulance Services is owned by Zanu PF member David Munowenyu, who has been working with the Presidential Health Scheme.

The company has been earmarked with a partnership with the CoH.

However, the deal is facing resistance with some councillors opposing it much to the disappointment of Mayor Jacob Mafume, who in the recent council meeting pushed for its approval.

HRT came short of labelling the deal as corrupt, a product of handpicking by the local authority. “The Discovery Ambulance Services deal has not been chosen from a competitive bidding process but has been handpicked based on their unsolicited submission to the CoH. “Deals with financial implications should be transparent and accountable, following procurement regulations without exception,” read the statement further. 🔗

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