By Jacob Ngarivhume- This is Sakubva Hospital at Matida Hostel in Mutare.

From the outside, it looks abandoned — the fence is gone, the benches in the waiting area are broken, and the place resembles a ghost facility rather than a public health institution.

Sakubva once offered a full range of services: a maternity ward, children’s ward, acute illness ward, day clinic, and even a mental health unit. Today, many of those services are no longer functional. The mental health section was discontinued after NGOs, who had been footing the bill, withdrew funding when U.S. foreign aid was cut during Donald Trump’s presidency. The government of Zimbabwe failed to step in, leaving vulnerable patients without care.

The eye unit still exists, but like the rest of the hospital, it is in a state of severe dilapidation. For a community that once relied on Sakubva Hospital as a pillar of hope, the decay is not just physical — it reflects a deeper failure of leadership.

As I walked through the grounds yesterday, I could not shake the image that this could be a clinic in war-torn Gaza. The neglect is that stark.

And then, as I absorbed the despair of the place, news came through: President Emmerson Mnangagwa had just donated 700 brand new vehicles to the army “for their comfort and use.”

The contrast was gut-wrenching. Soldiers receive cars while hospitals collapse. Citizens are left to die in broken facilities while the ruling elite prioritizes military luxury.

My heart broke. I was in tears.

The failure of Zimbabwe has always been, at its core, a failure of leadership.