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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