Health and child care minister Douglas Mombeshora says the government is moving into the next phase of procuring medical equipment using the controversial sugar tax introduced in 2024.
Zimbabwe introduced the \"Special Surtax on Sugar Content\" to curb obesity and non-communicable diseases, targeting sugar-sweetened beverages. Initially set at US$0.002 per gramme of sugar, the levy was reduced to US$0.001 in February 2024 following industry pressure, with funds aimed at financing cancer diagnostics and treatment.
“We have procured new equipment for radiotherapy. Three machines are going to Parirenyatwa Central Hospital in Harare and three machines are coming to Mpilo Radiotherapy Centre,” Mombeshora said after touring Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo this week.
“So construction work has already started to modify the bunkers here at Mpilo and also decommissioning of the old equipment is already in progress.”
“This is the first project from the sugar tax which we started collecting in 2024. We will proceed to procure more equipment,” he added.
He said the government has already flighted tenders which are running up to the 17th of May for the additional equipment.
“We are now going into the second phase where we are going to procure MRI scans for all our five central hospitals, CT scans for all our five central hospitals and CT scans for all our provincial hospitals and new X ray machines for all our provincial hospitals. So it’s a big project which we are hoping to spend close to US$60 million.”
