By A Correspondent – The Zanu PF government has declared that it will not extend healthcare or medical coverage to citizens living in the diaspora, including those in neighbouring South Africa.
Responding to a question in Parliament from Mbizo MP Corban Madzivanyika (CCC), Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the government’s strained budget makes it impossible to fund the medical needs of Zimbabweans abroad, especially when it cannot meet the needs of those at home. He noted that the priority is to implement a National Health Insurance Scheme for citizens residing within the country.
Ziyambi’s comments come at a time when Zimbabwean migrants, many of them undocumented, are increasingly being denied access to public healthcare in South Africa. Anti-immigrant groups like Operation Dudula have been at the forefront of pushing for the exclusion of foreign nationals, arguing that locals should be prioritized in the face of collapsing public services.
But the Minister’s comments have angered many Zimbabweans who feel abandoned by a government that has driven them into exile in the first place.
Since the turn of the millennium, Zimbabwe’s economy has been gutted by ZANU PF’s authoritarian rule, rampant corruption, violent land seizures, and economic mismanagement.
Hyperinflation, massive unemployment, and political repression have pushed millions of Zimbabweans across borders in search of survival.
From qualified professionals to informal workers, Zimbabweans have become economic refugees in countries such as South Africa, Botswana, the UK, and Australia. Many now face xenophobic hostility in their host nations, yet continue to support families back home through remittances that the same government relies on to keep the economy afloat.
Critics say it is hypocritical for the ZANU PF regime to benefit from diaspora remittances — which surpassed US$1.7 billion in 2023 — while refusing to extend even basic social protection to those contributing to the economy from abroad.
Ziyambi added that just as South Africa does not pay for the healthcare of its citizens living in Zimbabwe, the same principle should apply in reverse. But observers note that unlike South Africa, Zimbabwe’s mass exodus is not by choice but by economic necessity — the result of decades of failed leadership and state capture by ZANU PF elites.
Source: Zimeye
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