The new head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is rethinking a plan to appoint Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador.<\/p>\n
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s original proposal sparked an outcry.<\/p>\n
He had previously praised Zimbabwe for its commitment to public health.<\/p>\n
But Mr Mugabe’s critics say Zimbabwe’s healthcare system has collapsed under his 30-year rule, with staff often going without pay while medicines are in short supply.<\/p>\n
It led Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Doug Coltart to take to Twitter to question how the WHO felt about having “a Goodwill Ambassador who destroyed the health sector in his country”.<\/p>\n
Other social media users accused the president – who, at 93, has outlived his country’s average life expectancy by more than three decades – of travelling abroad to receive his own medical treatment.<\/p>\n
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\nDear @WHO<\/a><\/p>\n
Your new goodwill ambassador presides over a collapsed health system & goes to Singapore for treatment pic.twitter.com\/6rontGROXZ<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Alex T Magaisa (@Wamagaisa) October 21, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n