Pictures Of Hospitalised Urban Connect Bus Accident Victims In "Cardboard Casts" Spark Public Outrage
The dire state of Zimbabwe’s healthcare system was starkly exposed last week following a tragic bus accident in Beitbridge.
Victims of the crash, which resulted in 25 fatalities and dozens of injuries, were photographed at a local hospital with broken bones held together by makeshift casts made from cardboard, sellotape, and cloth.
The accident occurred last Thursday when a speeding Beitbridge-bound Urban Connect bus collided head-on with a haulage truck carrying magnesium to Chirundu near the Lutumba toll gate on the Beitbridge-Masvingo highway.
Images shared online depicted the victims lying helplessly while medical staff, working tirelessly, tried to save lives under incredibly difficult conditions.
Transport Minister Felix Tapiwa Mhona, Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe, and Matabeleland South Provincial Minister Eveline Ndlovu visited Beitbridge District Hospital, where they were photographed with the accident victims.
The sight of accident victims’ limbs being held together with cardboard and tape during a photo op was widely condemned as a heartless public relations stunt.
Further investigation revealed that the Urban Connect bus was operating without a valid route permit, and the driver did not have a valid retest certificate.
Renowned lawyer and former Mt Pleasant MP, Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, sharply criticized the government for neglecting the health sector. She said:
We are not letting this healthcare issue go. Why is the practice of using makeshift cardboard boxes to treat fractures so widespread in our public hospitals? Where is the dignity?
Surely, you must all resign. This level of incompetence borders on the criminal. It’s a mess. We need new leaders.
In another post on X on Sunday, February 16, 2025, Mahere criticized the government for its failure to provide basic supplies in hospitals. She wrote:
They promised us affordable, quality healthcare. Instead, they have given us cardboard boxes to use as casts to treat fractures, no clean water in public hospitals, torn hospital beds and no medication. It’s a mess.
ZANU PF loyalist Kudzai Mutisi, based in South Africa, also weighed in, criticizing his own party’s ministers as ineffective and incapable of providing even the most basic services to the people. He said:
A Cabinet Minister is witnessing FIRST HAND how his colleague in the Ministry of Health and Child Care has FAILED to do simple things. Felix Mhona will leave the hospital and SAY NOTHING about a dysfunctional system he witnessed.
In fact, he might join the 2030ists asking for more time to play. If you can’t do it now, then you certainly won’t do it even if given 40 more years. The current team of ministers lacks urgency and has misplaced priorities.
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