The collapse of Zimbabwe’s formerly world class healthcare system is a “man-made disaster,” says an emergency report from the US based charity Physicians for Human Rights. It says that life expectancy at birth in the country has plummeted over the past 20 years, from 60 to 36, and it warns that the situation continues to deteriorate, as the country no longer has any functioning public hospitals.

In the report’s preface Mary Robinson, former UN human rights commissioner, Richard Goldstone, former UN chief prosecutor for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu say: “The Mugabe regime has used any means at its disposal, including politicizing the health …