Mawarire is a former spokesperson for the National Patriotic Front (NPF) and a former close associate of the late former President Robert Mugabe.
President Mnangagwa had said on X (formerly Twitter) that his hospital visits were aimed at gaining a clearer understanding of the current state of public health services.
However, Mawarire scoffed at the explanation, alleging the tour was designed to “justify, as usual, the monetisation of our problems.”
Mawarire linked the visit to a US$437,282,400.00 contract for cancer treatment equipment. He claims this deal was signed between the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and TTM Global Medical Exports (PTY) Limited, a South African company reportedly linked Wicknell Chivayo, without going to tender. Wrote Mawarire:
We know you have already, through your office, signed a $439m dollar contract with a South African company, TTM Global Medical Exports without going to tender.
He further alleged an abuse of the recently introduced “sugar tax” being collected by the government.
Mawarire pointed fingers at Chivayo, referring to him as Mnangagwa’s “obese proxy,” and claiming Chivayo originated a “silly ‘presidential scheme for the provision of cancer treatment equipment’ proposal” that the OPC subsequently approved.
Commenting on the procurement contract, Mawarire labelled the entire arrangement a “scam.”
Mawarire criticised the timing of President Mnangagwa’s hospital tour, coming two months after the contract was allegedly signed.
He called it a “poor retrospective gimmick meant to sanitise the more than $400m heist that Rushwaya & ED pulled with the TTM Global scandal.”
He also singled out Martin Rushwaya, who accompanied President Mnangagwa on the tour, as “the most scandalous & corrupt govt official that Zimbabwe has ever had since 1980.”