Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Senior Health Reporter
GOVERNMENT has launched a major push to stabilise the public health system, recruiting more than 5 000 health workers last year and setting out plans to double the national workforce by 2030, a move that will add at least 32 000 public health jobs.
This will help cut waiting times at health institutions and protect ordinary citizens at a time when international funding, particularly from Western partners, is shrinking.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Health and Child Care Permanent Secretary, Dr Aspect Maunganidze, said the recruitment drive, which will see tens of thousands of additional workers absorbed over the next four years, reflects a deliberate shift towards building a resilient, self-sustaining health system funded and driven largely by domestic resources.
President Mnangagwa is spearheading a revolution in the health sector that has seen challenges being comprehensively addressed to improve the country’s health delivery system and other essential social services.
At the direction of the President, Government has been equipping health institutions with modern machinery, improving the state of buildings and addressing conditions of service for health workers.
The President made an impromptu visit to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Sally Mugabe Hospital and the National Pharmaceutical Company last year to have an appreciation of challenges the institutions are facing.
He is on record saying the Second Republic will continue to modernise the health sector through investment in advanced equipment and infrastructure to guarantee timely emergency care for everyone.
“Treasury has played a critical role. It concurred with the additional costs associated with expanding the workforce. In 2025 alone, Treasury availed 5 284 posts across various cadres, including nurses, pharmacists and doctors. This was a significant achievement,” said Dr Maunganidze.
The plan is ambitious and people-focused.
By 2030, Government aims to have doubled the current health workforce, creating and sustaining at least 32 000 additional public health jobs, a move expected not only to strengthen hospitals and clinics, but also to inject life into local economies.
According to the Health Service Commission (HSC), this growth could stimulate more than 100 000 jobs across related services and supply chains, from pharmaceuticals and transport to equipment maintenance and catering.
For years, Zimbabwe’s health sector has operated under severe staffing shortages, with nurses and doctors stretched thin, particularly in rural communities.
Official assessments show the system is functioning at just 47,5 percent of optimal capacity, largely due to sustained outward migration.
Nearly one in five doctors trained in Zimbabwe is now working abroad, while about 7 550 nurses, representing 35 percent of the nursing workforce, are employed outside the country.
The 2022 Health Labour Market Analysis further shows Zimbabwe has just over 22 health workers per 10 000 people, far below the global benchmark of 44 per 10 000.
Dr Maunganidze said reversing this trend required long-term planning and structural reform, anchored under the Human Resources for Health Investment Compact signed in October 2024.
“Zimbabwe has experienced high attrition rates, largely because our health professionals are highly sought after globally,” he said.
“They are well trained, particularly in practical competencies, which makes them competitive internationally. In response, we have focused on strengthening and increasing the production of health workers.
“In October 2024, we signed the Human Resources for Health Investment Compact. This compact is designed to significantly boost production, with our overall goal being to double the health workforce by 2030.”
At the heart of this strategy is decentralised training, especially for nurses, designed to keep skills rooted in communities.
Government has established more than five new nurse training schools across the country, with almost every province now hosting, or preparing to establish, its own institution.
Recruitment into nurse training has also been devolved to provinces and health institutions, an approach authorities believe will encourage graduates to serve where they grew up.
“We have also devolved recruitment for nurse training. Provinces and institutions now have a greater say in who is being trained,” said Dr Maunganidze.
“We are aware that people are more likely to serve in the communities where they grew up and this approach strengthens devolution while improving retention.”
Under the national strategy, annual training output is expected to rise from 3 334 health workers in 2022 to at least 7 000 by 2030.
Government is also working to professionalise and integrate community health workers into the mainstream system, recognising their critical role as the first point of contact for many families.
This aggressive recruitment and training drive comes at a time when donor funding is declining, placing pressure on critical programmes covering HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and maternal and child health.
Dr Maunganidze said the reduction in external funding, including from the United States, had reinforced the urgency of strengthening domestic financing.
“Donor funding is declining globally and this reality informed our planning,” he said.
“Guided by the outcomes of the Health Financing Dialogue, we were able to mobilise local resources through institutions such as the National AIDS Council.
“This ensured that people on antiretroviral therapy, as well as those requiring malaria and TB treatment, continued to receive uninterrupted care using domestic funding.”
He said Zimbabwe had also forged new partnerships with local private sector players, positioning the country among the more organised in the region in securing essential medicines, particularly for priority diseases.
Beyond numbers, Government is focusing on retaining and motivating health workers by improving their working conditions.
“Many health workers become frustrated, not necessarily because of remuneration, but due to the lack of equipment,” said Dr Maunganidze.
“Working with partners and across Government, we have embarked on a major drive to equip our health institutions. Facilities have received theatre equipment, ventilators and incubators, among other critical assets. This plays a significant role in job satisfaction and motivation.”
The infrastructure development is moving in tandem with workforce expansion.
In 2025, Government rolled out major projects under the Presidential Hospital Renovation Scheme, starting with Parirenyatwa School of Nursing and Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Hospital, before moving to Mpilo Central Hospital.
The programme aims to ensure that all central and provincial hospitals are fit for purpose as Zimbabwe advances towards Vision 2030.
At community level, four new health centres – Mataga (Mberengwa), Runyararo, Cowdray Park and Stone Ridge – have been commissioned over the past two to three years, with additional facilities in Manhize, Chivi, Zaka and Bulilima scheduled from this year.
“By placing infrastructure closer to where people live, particularly in rural areas, we want to reduce walking distances from an average of 10 kilometres to five kilometres,” Dr Maunganidze said.
Looking ahead, plans are also in place to construct district hospitals for Harare and Bulawayo metropolitan provinces from late 2026 into 2027.
“These facilities will address a critical gap in the referral system, sitting between primary health facilities in suburbs and central hospitals,” he said.
“This middle-level referral infrastructure is essential for a functional and efficient health system, and it represents the next phase of our infrastructure programme under the NMS.”
For patients, families and frontline workers alike, the message is clear: the rebuilding of Zimbabwe’s public health system is no longer a promise on paper, but a process unfolding on the ground, clinic by clinic and community by community.
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