Radio Dialogue Giving you a voice
The Zimbabwean embassy in German has revealed that it is making efforts to twin Bulawayo with three or more German cities to enable health institutions of that country to donate excess medical equipment to local council clinics.
Speaking to Radio Dialogue at his residence in Berlin, the Germany capital, the Zimbabwean ambassador to German, Poland and Switzerland, Hebson Makuvise said he is currently engaged in talks with German health centres to start donating humanitarian aid to Bulawayo.
“You will find that there are some local clinics that have surplus medical equipment that they do not need, so if the Bulawayo City Council can identify what local health institutions need in terms of healthcare materials so that we do not source equipment that we don’t need,” Makuvise said.
“If we have an idea of who needs what, then we can source that here in Germany and I know they (German health institutions) will donate, but we need to know what local clinics require otherwise we risk sourcing equipment that they do not need.”
Makuvise said Harare is already twinned with Munich and is currently benefitting from the relationship adding that Bulawayo requires to be twinned with more than one city as it has continued to be developmentally disadvantaged.
“Bulawayo has largely been behind in terms of development, Harare is currently twinned with the city of Munich but I wanted Bulawayo to be twinned with three or four cities in Germany simply because their healthcare service provision efforts need to be supported to enable Bulawayo residents to access affordable medical and or health services,” said Ambassador Makuvise. Bulawayo is expected to be twinned with Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart.
According to ambassador Makuvise, several German investors have indicated an interest in investing in Zimbabwe, a move that he explained could be used as an opportunity to arrest Bulawayo’s deindustrialization.
“I have been talking to a number of German investors and financial institutions who have expressed an interest to invest in Zimbabwe but once they are assured that their investments will be secure they will start investing because currently we are getting humanitarian aid and that will not revive our economy,” he said.
“These areas are tourism, mining, agriculture, energy development, water and sanitation.”
