The cuts, triggered by an executive order from former President Donald Trump, have hurt Zimbabwe’s HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria programmes.

Speaking at last week’s “Ministers Meet the Media” engagement, Mombeshora confirmed that the Treasury is mobilising funds to ensure these workers are absorbed into the government payroll. He said:

We, as the Ministry of Health, have already planned to take over all health workers under the ministry’s employment.

There were accountability issues because some health workers employed by NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and partners had unclear reporting structures. At times when they were absent, we didn’t know their whereabouts.

We had already started these discussions last year to say all workers in the health system must be put under the Ministry of Health and if partners are coming in to help us, they can come in and top up, but all employees must belong to the ministry.

Treasury is actually mobilising funds to make sure we take over all these workers and make sure they will be on our payroll, including even recruiting extra ones because we have a compact way we agreed that we need to double our health workforce by the year 2030.

Mombeshora also reassured the public that there are sufficient stocks of antiretroviral (ARV) medications to meet the country’s needs until the end of June 2025. He added:

However, shipments meant to cover the period from June to December have been stopped and we cannot wait for the outcome of the 90-day review process before acting.

In terms of service delivery, in terms of those who are on HIV and AIDS treatment, there will be no disruption; there will be no shortage of any medicines. No one should actually be scared; no one should actually start worrying.

More: The Sunday Mail