Debunked: Activist’s Sanctions Claim on Cancer Machines Misleads Zimbabweans

Activist Rutendo Benson Matinyarare has been accused of spreading propaganda after claiming that new cancer machines from the Netherlands prove a 25-year medical embargo by the West. In a recent post, Matinyarare said the radiotherapy units arrived only because the US and EU lifted sanctions in 2024, ending a supposed ban on importing medical equipment. But analyst Samuel Musarika says that’s simply not true.

Musarika points out that US and EU sanctions on Zimbabwe were targeted at specific individuals and entities, not a comprehensive trade embargo. Medical equipment and humanitarian goods have long been exempt under US and EU regulations. The real problems, he argues, are chronic foreign currency shortages, economic mismanagement, corruption, and brain drain of medical professionals.

Zimbabwe’s radiotherapy machines at Parirenyatwa and Mpilo hospitals have been broken for years, with the IAEA reporting all three machines were down in 2006. Maintenance costs and lack of trained engineers were key issues, not a Western conspiracy. The new machines, funded partly by a sugar tax levy, are welcome, but Musarika says giving credit to sanctions lifting is ‘cartoonish’ cause-and-effect.

Musarika concludes that Matinyarare’s narrative insults Zimbabweans who lived through the real crises. ‘Zimbabwe deserves honest diagnosis of its problems: governance, accountability, and economic competence included,’ he wrote.

Article and image source: thezimbabwedaily.com