If Zimbabwe feels cheated by the US in health deal then why are we beggars and not funding our own programs?

There is a peculiar brand of arrogance that only a beggar who feels entitled to the contents of a benefactor’s wallet can truly master.

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This is the tragicomedy currently playing out in the corridors of power in Zimbabwe, where the government has chosen to collapse a crucial health funding negotiation with the United States.

The official narrative is one of wounded pride and technical grievances.

We are told that the Americans are being stingy with their data, that Zimbabwe is being exploited for its health statistics without receiving the analytical fruits of that labor, and that the terms of the engagement infringe upon our national sovereignty.

While these concerns might hold weight in a peer-to-peer negotiation between two self-sufficient nations, they ring hollow when coming from a state that cannot provide basic paracetamol to its own citizens without a foreign grant.

​The failed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was not a small matter.

It involved a staggering US$367 million in funding over five years—money intended to sustain the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and maternal mortality.

For a country where the public health system is perpetually on life support, rejecting such a sum is an act of breathtaking recklessness.

The Zimbabwean government argues that the US demand for direct access to health data and biological resources for an extended period was an intrusive “unequal exchange.”

They claim that Zimbabwe would not benefit from medical innovations like vaccines or diagnostics derived from this data.

They even go as far as to suggest that signing such a bilateral deal would undermine multilateralism because the US previously distanced itself from the World Health Organization.

These reasons may perceive themselves as legitimate in the eyes of bureaucrats in Harare, but they ignore the most fundamental reality of international relations.

Beggars cannot be choosers.

When you are receiving millions of dollars in grants—not loans, but free money—you do not have the moral or economic leverage to dictate every comma in the agreement.

If Zimbabwe wants to be treated as an equal partner that can negotiate data-sharing protocols on its own terms, it must first be an equal partner in the financing of its own survival.

Expecting a fair deal while holding out a tin cup for the very funds that keep your population alive is not an exercise in sovereignty; it is an exercise in delusion.

​The hypocrisy of the “sovereignty” argument becomes even more glaring when we look at how Zimbabwe handles its own vast resources.

We are a richly endowed country, blessed with some of the world’s most sought-after minerals, from gold to lithium.

Why are we even begging to care for our own people in the first place?

The answer does not lie in a lack of wealth, but in a catastrophic failure of management and a culture of systemic plunder.

While the government cries “sovereignty” to avoid American transparency requirements, it simultaneously presides over a system where the country’s riches are bled dry by a tiny, well-connected elite.

Consider the sheer absurdity of our financial priorities.

We are told there is no money for oncology machines or to pay doctors a living wage, yet the nation watched in stunned silence as R1.1 billion—roughly US69 million—was reportedly funneled toward a shady South African company for election materials.

Even more galling is the fact that R800 million of that sum was suspiciously deposited into bank accounts linked to a local, politically aligned tenderpreneur.

This is the same country where, year after year, we lose over US4 billion to mineral smuggling, illicit financial flows, and other corrupt activities.

That amount alone could fund our entire healthcare system many times over, yet it vanishes into the pockets of the few while the many queue for hours at understaffed clinics.

The optics of this situation are nothing short of embarrassing.

On one hand, we have “tenderpreneurs” who flaunt their wealth with obscene displays of luxury, doling out cars and cash like confetti at a wedding.

These individuals, whose wealth is often tied directly to their proximity to power rather than any productive enterprise, live in a parallel reality of opulence.

On the other hand, we have a government that stands on its high horse, lecturing the world about “rights and fairness” and “national dignity” while its health ministry relies on foreign taxpayers to provide life-saving antiretroviral drugs to over a million Zimbabweans.

If the Zimbabwean government truly believes that data is the “new oil” and that we are being cheated by the Americans, then the solution is simple.

We should start funding our own programs.

True sovereignty is not found in a fiery speech at a diplomatic summit or a strongly worded letter to an ambassador.

It is found in the ability to pay your own bills.

When you fund your own healthcare, you own the data.

When you build your own hospitals with your own diamond and gold revenue, you set the conditions.

When you stop the US$4 billion annual leak of national wealth, you don’t need to worry about whether a donor’s MOU is “lop-sided.”

By walking away from this health deal under the guise of protecting our independence, the leadership is effectively gambling with the lives of the most vulnerable citizens.

The US Ambassador has already noted that they will now begin the “difficult and regrettable task” of winding down health assistance.

For the mother in a rural village who relies on a donor-funded clinic, “sovereignty” will not cure her malaria.

For the youth living with HIV, “data privacy” is a cold comfort if the pharmacy shelves go bare.

These are the real-world consequences of a pride that is not backed by productivity.

We cannot expect to be respected on the international stage when we behave like a wealthy man who begs for his dinner while wearing a gold watch.

The international community sees the mineral smuggling; they see the “shady” tenders; they see the illicit flows that drain our treasury.

When we then turn around and complain that a benefactor’s conditions are too harsh, we don’t look like defenders of independence; we look like an ungrateful and disorganized state.

If we want to be respected, we need to stand on our own two feet.

We need to stop the rot from within, hold the looters accountable, and ensure that our mineral wealth benefits the many rather than the few.

Until we can fund our own healthcare system, our talk of “sovereignty” will remain nothing more than a hollow slogan used to mask the failures of a nation that has chosen to be a beggar despite being born a king.

• Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08