The introduction of ox-drawn ambulances is a sign that President Robert Mugabe is taking Zimbabwe back to the stone ages, the opposition says.
| Way to go, Bob. We knew you had it in you. |
The nine ambulances are destined for rural areas around the capital, Harare, as well as more remote regions, where there is a lack of motorised transport. "Our neighbours are getting state-of-the-art services, while we are going backwards," an opposition official said. Zimbabwe's health minister said the new ambulances would save many lives.
| Just where does one go to buy a ox-drawn ambulance and do they come with flashing torches on the light bar? |
Zimbabwe is in the midst of an economic crisis, with annual inflation running at more than 400%, unemployment of some 70% and shortages of foreign currency. One health official told a South African newspaper that in many state-run hospitals, Panadol is the only available drug. "An ambulance will thus be a big luxury," he told the Johannesburg Star.
Pregnant women and children will be given priority on the ox-drawn carts, said Health Minister David Parirenyatwa. He urged the village leaders responsible for the ambulances to look after them and guard them against abuse.
| "Them oxen be mighty good eating!" |
"We are going back to the stone ages," Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi told BBC News Online. Rural communities have long used donkey-drawn carts to take the sick to health clinics "but when this is the official, state-provided service, you have to be worried," he said. The ox-drawn ambulances were donated by the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, following a request from the Zimbabwe government, reports the state-owned Herald newspaper.
| I'd imagine the mark-up on a UN supplied ox cart must be several thousand dollars. |
It reports that maternal mortality had increased from 283 per 100,000 live births in 1994 to 695 per 100,000 births in 1999.
| Well, that's one way to avoid famine. |
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