A SENIOR government official on Sunday revealed that one in five women in Umguza district of Matabeleland North Province give birth at home because available medical institutions are expensive and inaccessible.
Southern Eye Editorial
In the constituency, which ironically is held by Zanu PF legislator Obert Mpofu considered to be one of the richest politicians in this part of the word, some villagers cannot afford hospital access fees and would rather give birth in the safety of their dagga and grass kitchens or bedrooms.
It is saddening that 33 years after independence we still have incidents where our mothers and sisters deliver babies at homes, risking their lives and those of their unborn babies in a country where we speak glowingly about our hard-earned sovereignty.
Despite our independence from Britain in 1980, the country — which boasts several minerals, top among them diamonds — is still stuck in the Stone Age. The shocking revelation in Umguza is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Most rural areas of Matabeleland, the Midlands and Masvingo lack proper health facilities largely because of political neglect. Such premedieval tragedies are as a result of failure by the government to move us forward through its policies.
Such problems are at the convergence of several issues such as low incomes and poor transport networks to rush expecting women to hospitals and the lack of adequate social support systems for the most vulnerable of our societies.
Women generally cannot afford health facilities for other reasons like their prolonged marginalisation in independent Zimbabwe. It would not be unreasonable to entirely blame the government for this mess.
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Legislators whose term of office lapsed last Friday, spent five years of the last Parliament in the august House fighting over allowances and severance packages instead of bringing development to their communities.
It shows how selfish politicians are keen on consolidating power instead of improving social services delivery.
The principals in the coalition government spent the last five years squabbling over issues bedevilling the government of national unity, but paid lip-service to the health and education delivery systems which are all in a state of decay.
For the past five years, the government did nothing in as far as social service delivery is concerned.
