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Dr Kereke

Herald Reporter
Rockfoundation Medical Centre has called for responsible authorities to look into unfair practices in which it has lost crucial equipment worth more than US$1,9 million in the last few months after it was attached over a collective debt of only US$16 600.
RMC operations manager Mr Zack Chigumira said in a statement yesterday that they were surprised that expensive equipment was being attached over small debts.
“The most unfortunate thing is that for very small debts, the Deputy Sheriff is attaching assets that are completely disproportionate as if the objective is to deliberately destroy the life-saving institution,” he said.

The state-of-the-art hospital owned by Bikita West legislator Dr Munyaradzi Kereke recently lost two ambulances, a radiology fluoroscopy machine, a digitiser for radiology, 20 electric hospital beds, a cancer detection mammography and other furniture all worth US$1,2 million over a West Chase IT company’s US$600 debt.

The hospital also had a radiology breast cancer detector station (mammography), a 250KVA generator, an LG LCD TV, computers, printers, chairs and water dispensers all worth US$450 000 attached over a debt of US$10 000 to Utano Africa.

Snow White Dry Cleaners attached a Toyota ambulance, a staff bus, a 200KVA generator, a 2,5 tonne truck and 10 hospital beds from the hospital all worth US$260 000 over a US$6 000 debt.

“Where brazenly for debts of as little as US$600 to US$10 000, equipment worth millions of dollars is heartlessly ravaged and auctioned off for a song, this cannot be legally reasonable, this cannot be legally proportionate, this cannot be legally impartial and this cannot be both substantively and procedurally fair in the letter and spirit as protected by our Constitution,” said Mr Chigumira.

“Our plea is for responsible authorities to look into this and ensure that both debtors and creditors are protected by the law and also to make sure that public institutions and systems are not deployed as arsenal against innocent citizens for narrow personal agendas by the might in our society.”

Mr Chigumira said the RMC had been subjected to grossly unlawful, unconstitutional, unfair and disproportionate treatment, “but we remain hopeful that one day justice will prevail”.

RMC has been under Zimra garnishees for the last 10 months and has taken the dispute to the Supreme  Court after challenging the way the tax collector made its calculations.