The Zimbabwean government has reacted angrily to the decision by the World Health Organization to remove President Mugabe from the post of Goodwill Ambassador for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Africa.
Mr. Mugabe lost the Goodwill role on Sunday after his appointment last week was criticized by donors and rights groups.
The Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had announced Mr. Mugabe’s appointment at a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Uruguay on Wednesday.
Tedros who is a former Ethiopian health and foreign minister praised Zimbabwe as “a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the centre of its policies to provide health care to all”.
He further said “Today I am also honoured to announce that President Mugabe has agreed to serve as a goodwill ambassador on NCDs for Africa to influence his peers in his region to prioritize NCDs.”
After the series of criticisms, Mr. Tedros said in a statement that “Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment of H.E. President Robert Mugabe as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for NCDs in Africa. As a result I have decided to rescind the appointment,”
“I thank everyone who has voiced their concerns and shared their thoughts. I depend on constructive debate to help and inform the work I have been elected to do,” Tedro further said in his statement.
The government of Zimbabwe has said that the WHO is the biggest loser following the decision to remove Mr. Mugabe from the role.
Zimbabwe’s state-owned broadcaster ZBC, reported that the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Walter Mzembi said Zimbabwe respected the WHO’s decision but that “the global body is the biggest loser”.
“The inordinate noise around the designation of the President [Mugabe] as WHO Global Ambassador for Africa does not assist the cause in the first place. If anything it is WHO that has benefited tremendously from its decision in nominating President Mugabe to lead the fight against NCDs through media amplification of WHO itself, and curiosity by the general public on what really are NCDs, by tagging the name Mugabe to the debate.
“On a name recognition scale, this name beats them all, but it is our business to protect its brand equity from unnecessary besmirching,” Mzembi was quoted as saying.
President Mugabe, 93 has been blamed for the struggling economy of Zimbabwe and abusing human rights of his citizens.
Source: Africafeeds.com
