Photos of accident victims in cardboard boxes ‘plasters’ spark public outrage; Zimbabwe’s government under spotlight for collapsed health system, as massive corruption rages on

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PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is facing a firestorm of criticism after the appalling response to the latest road traffic accident, where victims at unnamed hospitals were captured on camera with limbs supported by cardboard boxes, cellotape and cloths.

The grim reality of Zimbabwe’s healthcare system has been laid bare, as harrowing images of survivors from the Lutumba Tollgate bus accident, which occurred along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway, circulate online. This is an Ignite Media Zimbabwe news production.
Pictures showing broken limbs crudely splinted with cardboard and tape have gone viral, sparking outrage across social media.

The tragic collision, involving a Beitbridge-bound Urban Connect bus and a haulage truck carrying magnesium to Chirundu near the Lutumba toll gate on the Beitbridge-Masvingo highway last Thursday, claimed 25 lives and left scores seriously injured, fighting for their lives in critical condition.

Last year, Neshuro District Hospital, one of the closest medical facilities to the accident site, was already creaking under the strain of inadequate resources.

Reports had it that the hospital lacked a functional mortuary, kitchen, and even a washing machine, with nurses resorting to using sticks to clean hospital linen – a telling sign of the neglect plaguing the health system nationwide.

Cabinet ministers, who descended upon the accident scene and later visited victims in hospital, seemed unfazed by the desperate situation.

Victims lay helpless before them, while doctors and nurses, working their fingers to the bone, struggled to save lives, only to be let down by a government that seemingly does not prioritize proper healthcare infrastructure capable of responding to such crises.

Transport Minister Felix Tapiwa Mhona, Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe, and Matebeleland South Provincial Minister Eveline Ndlovu were photographed posing at an unnamed hospital, believed to be Neshuro District Hospital, with accident victims whose limbs were held together by cardboard and tape – a photo opportunity that has been widely condemned as a callous public relations stunt.

Further adding insult to injury, it emerged that the Urban Connect bus, responsible for 24 deaths, was operating without a valid route permit, and the driver lacked a valid retest certificate, pointing to a wider problem of lax regulations and enforcement.

Since Saturday, critics have been pulling no punches in their condemnation of Mnangagwa’s government, describing the incident as an utter embarrassment and a damning indictment of the government’s unwillingness to invest in well-equipped hospitals for the benefit of ordinary citizens.

Renowned lawyer and former Mt Pleasant MP Advocate Fadzayi Mahere wasted no time in holding Information Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana to account, peppering him with pointed questions.

The former Zanu PF representative in the United Kingdom and Europe remains conspicuously silent, likely feeling the sting of the criticism himself.

“We are not letting this healthcare issue go,” Mahere posted on X on Sunday.

“Why is the practice of using makeshift cardboard boxes to treat fractures so widespread in our public hospitals? Where is the dignity? Surely, you must all resign. This level of incompetence borders on the criminal. It’s a mess. We need new leaders.”

Mahere continued her broadside in another post on X Sunday, February 16, 2025: “They promised us affordable, quality healthcare. Instead, they have given us cardboard boxes to use as casts to treat fractures, no clean water in public hospitals, torn hospital beds and no medication. It’s a mess.”

Self-exiled Zanu PF loyalist Kudzai Mutisi, based in South Africa, also weighed in, lambasting his own party’s ministers as useless, unable to deliver even the most basic services to the people. This is an Ignite Media Zimbabwe news production. “A Cabinet Minister is witnessing FIRST HAND how his colleague in the Ministry of Health and Child Care has FAILED to do simple things. Felix Mhona will leave the hospital and SAY NOTHING about a dysfunctional system he witnessed.

“In fact, he might join the 2030ists asking for more time to play. If you can’t do it now, then you certainly won’t do it even if given 40 more years. The current team of ministers lacks urgency and has misplaced priorities,” said Mutisi in his X post on Sunday.

Even former cabinet minister Saviour Kasukuwere, who served under the late President Robert Mugabe and is himself considered by many to bear some culpability for the systemic deficiencies crippling Zimbabwe’s healthcare, has now weighed in, adding his voice to the chorus of condemnation levelled at Mnangagwa’s government over the deplorable treatment of accident victims.

“This is not normal,” he posted Sunday.

He joins the fray with a clear vested interest, as it would be imprudent to discount how much the issue will improve his standing amongst the masses.

Kasukuwere’s erstwhile colleague, former cabinet minister Professor Jonathan Moyo – a figure currently out of favour with many both within and outside Zanu PF, and seemingly sitting on the fence regarding Mnangagwa’s 2030 term extension, waiting to see which way the wind blows – could not remain silent, despite his recent show of support for the government.

He posted on his X account on Sunday: “This dispiriting image is an indictment of the state of the administration and delivery of public health in the country.”