Hundreds of members of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and other protesters have gathered outside Groote Schuur Hospital where there are demonstrating and calling for Chiwenga to be deported back to Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga was on Saturday morning airlifted again to South Africa for emergency medical treatment after his health deteriorated last week.
According to our sources on the ground Chiwenga, was taken ill after attending a brief politburo meeting in Harare.
Chiwenga was taken into the Avenues Clinic on Wednesday from around 4pm until around 7pm. Whereupon he was treated and then discharged. However, his health condition is said to have deteriorated, forcing him to seek further attention and specialist treatment. Chiwenga was airlifted to Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, where he is presently receiving medical treatment.
Protesters blame Chiwenga and his boss President Mnangagwa for the poor working conditions faced by doctors and hospital staff alike in Zimbabwe. A few months ago many medical professionals who had gone on strike to express their disgruntlement at the treatment they were receiving from the state were summarily dismissed by Chiwenga.
Lobby group Citizens Forum Zimbabwe (CFZ) have blamed the VP for expressing rampant hypocrisy by seeking treatment outside the country, and feels this proves that the government does not support or trust their own doctors and local hospitals.
It has become the norm for top government officials in Zimbabwe to fly out of the country to seek medical treatment. The local hospital are in a dilapidated state owing to the government’s neglecting and running down of the health delivery system in Zimbabwe.
It is still not clear what Chiwenga is suffering from. Government sources have only stated that the Vice President was airlifted to South Africa it as result of a “medical emergency.”
More news to follow as the story develops
