JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo was on Tuesday admitted to a South African hospital for a “scheduled operation”, days after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government okayed a process of firing a third of Zimbabwe’s doctors leaving millions of people without access to health care.
Moyo has been in and out of hospital over the last year with a kidney ailment.
George Charamba, the spokesman for the presidency, said on Twitter: “This is a scheduled operation. I can’t vouch that he is now admitted. But I am aware this was a pending event, after Mauritius.”
Moyo recently led SADC Election Observer Missions to Botswana and Mauritius.
Charamba did not say what operation Moyo, who regularly undergoes dialysis, was due to undergo.
Moyo’s medical flight to South Africa will anger Zimbabweans who have to contend with hospitals without doctors after the government last week began a process of firing over 500 doctors who have been on strike since September 3 demanding improved pay.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his entire Cabinet get treated abroad at taxpayer expense.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has spent the last four months in China, after also receiving treatment in South Africa and India.
