MP says Health Minister Parirenyatwa cannot intervene in doctors’ case

Magwegwe Member of Parliament Anele Ndebele says Health Minister David Parirenyatwa cannot adjudicate between doctors and medical aid societies because he has been implicated in shady dealings with one of the country’s major medical aid societies.

He was speaking during the debate in which several legislators called on Parirenyatwa to intervene following an announcement by members of the Zimbabwe Medical Association that they will start charging medical aid card holders cash from 1 July because medical aid societies owe them $200 million.

Ndebele said he did not agree that Parirenyatwa could intervene and posed several questions why.

“Is the person in the fore front not the very same Minister that was in the newspapers for defrauding PSMAS?  These are rhetorical questions.  Is the same Minister not the same Minister who has never given a ministerial statement in this House?  Is he not the same Minister that has even failed to sit in a hotel elsewhere and address his role in the PSMAS debacle?” he asked.

“I honestly think that if we keep saying Minister, Minister, the Minister also approaches this question with dirty hands.  I therefore move quickly to agree with my colleague Hon. Misihairabwi-Mushonga, so that I do not fail to pronounce the other one.  That if the Minister is not the rightful person as I have demonstrated, is it not time then Mr. Speaker, for this House to fall back on Section 140 (3) of our Constitution which allows for our President who is the Chief Executive of this country to come into this very House to address important questions around matters of health.”

Parirenyatwa was paid $100 000 by the Premier Medical Aid Society when he was owed only $23 000 at a time when the country’s largest medical aid society was failing to pay other doctors.

He was later reported to have paid back the $77 000.

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