Twenty-six-year-old Agneta Ndlovu recounts the traumatic experience of delivering her first child at Mandava Clinic, recalling the ordeal as a ‘living nightmare’ after being denied care due to her inability to pay a bribe. The unemployed Ndlovu from Fourmiles on the outskirts of Zvishavane town in the Midlands Province was being punished for failing to raise US$5 commonly known asmari yambuya(the midwife’s money) while admitted at the facility. She said nurses at Mandava Clinic, which is affiliated to Zvishavane Ditrict Hospital, told her that they were only giving priority to those who were able to pay the bribes.
Ndlovu said she was in labour for three days where the midwives watched her writhing in agony and refused to help her for failing to line their pockets. “I was in labour for three days at Mandava Clinic and when I gave birth, I faced neglect,” she recalled. “On the third day, I gave birth on my own.
I called for help, but no one came. “The biggest challenge is that the midwives demanded(money for drinks). “I couldn’t afford to pay them.
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“Others who were at the same ward and had paid were being treated well by the midwives.” Investigations by CITE revealed that Ndlovu’s ordeal was not an isolated case. Fairness Moyo (36), an expecting mother at the same clinic, said the midwives also demanded a bribe from her. Moyo said pregnant women were made to pay various amounts for sundries and the money was never properly accounted for.
“Women are being asked to pay extra fees calledmari yambuya,” she said. “If you don’t pay, you don’t get monitored. They just ignore you. “They make you buy things such as cotton wool in big quantities and whatever is left unused is then sold to other patients at inflated prices.”
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