President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed Vice President Constantino Chiwenga as health minister in a move the government said was meant to restore order in Zimbabwe’s troubled health sector.
In a statement on Tuesday, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda said Mnangagwa took the decision after noting “the urgent need to stabilise, restructure and reform the national health delivery system to better cope with challenges of the global Covid-19 pandemic, and in the process, ensuring a quick turn-around in national healthcare.”
The appointment, which is with immediate effect, comes almost a month after former health minister Obadiah Moyo was sacked by Mnangagwa in the wake of claims of corruption regarding a deal to procure coronavirus test kits.
Moyo was accused of illegally awarding a US$42 million tender to a shadowy firm for the supply of COVID-19 drugs and personal protective equipment fully aware the company was not a pharmaceutical but a consultancy firm.
JN/APA