US cuts down health assistance programmes after Mnangagwa rejects US$367 million deal

The United States has announced it will begin winding down health assistance to Zimbabwe after President Emmerson Mnangagwa walked away from negotiations over a proposed bilateral health agreement.

The diplomatic rupture puts 1.2 million HIV patients at immediate risk, unless the Zimbabwe government steps up to fill the funding gap.

In a press statement issued after ZimLive on Monday revealed the breakdown in talks, US Ambassador Pamela Tremont confirmed the consequences would be swift and sweeping.

“We will now turn to the difficult and regrettable task of winding down our health assistance in Zimbabwe,” she said.

Tremont, who met Zimbabwe’s foreign minister Amon Murwira last week, said the Zimbabwe government had “assured us it is prepared to sustain the fight against HIV/AIDS.”

“We wish them well,” she added in a comment that read less as a pleasantry than a pointed transfer of responsibility.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was being promoted by Washington as the future framework for US health support to Zimbabwe under its America First Global Health Strategy (AFGHS). But Harare found its conditions unacceptable on multiple fronts.

A letter first reported by ZimLive dated December 23, 2025, and written by foreign affairs secretary Albert Chimbindi instructed the secretaries for finance and health to halt all discussions immediately, on direct orders from the president.

“The president has directed that Zimbabwe must discontinue any negotiation with the USA on the clearly lopsided MoU that blatantly compromises and undermines the sovereignty and independence of Zimbabwe as a country,” the letter stated.

Diplomatic sources said Mnangagwa objected specifically to US demands for access to Zimbabwe’s national health data, which officials characterised as intelligence overreach, and to provisions linking the deal to access to the country’s critical mineral resources.

The US pushed back hard on that characterisation. The embassy said the rejected MoU would have provided $367 million over five years, slightly more than the $350 million figure first reported, covering HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and disease outbreak preparedness.

It described the deal as the largest potential health investment in Zimbabwe by any international funder, built on a co-funding model intended to put Zimbabwe on a path toward self-reliance by gradually increasing its own health budget alongside American support.

Washington also pointed to the broader continental picture as a rebuttal to Harare’s framing. Sixteen African countries have now signed similar agreements, unlocking a combined $18.3 billion in new health funding – $11.2 billion from the US and $7.1 billion in co-investment from the recipient countries themselves.

“The United States has a responsibility to American taxpayers to invest their resources where mutual accountability, transparency, and shared commitment are assured,” Tremont said.

The US has provided more than $1.9 billion in health support to Zimbabwe since 2006, and American-funded programmes are credited with helping Zimbabwe achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, the global benchmark for HIV treatment and suppression. The 1.2 million Zimbabweans currently receiving HIV treatment through US-supported programmes now face an uncertain future as those programmes are wound down.

Mnangagwa’s government has not said publicly where it intends to source replacement funding, nor detailed a timeline for transitioning patients to alternative support. *_-ZimLive_*

4. *War veterans-linked syndicate barred from invading miner’s claim*

The High Court in Mutare has ruled that a mining syndicate linked to well-known war veterans attempted to use a recently issued “special grant” to muscle long-time gold miner Nomatter Nyarugwe off his legally registered claim, with Justice Isaac Muzenda condemning their actions as unlawful dispossession.

Granting a spoliation order the judge said Nyarugwe had been in “peaceful and undisturbed possession” of his Reunya Fortune 25 mining block since 1994, and the conduct of Chimurenga Mining Syndicate, Nathan Manyuchi, and Douglas Mahiya amounted to outright despoilment.

“Applicant has now settled on this claim for more than three decades; he cannot be mistaken about the confines of his beacons,” Muzenda said.

The dispute erupted after the first respondent, Chimurenga Mining Syndicate, obtained a special mining grant from the Ministry of Mines in October 2025. But the court heard that as early as June 2025, months before the grant was even issued the syndicate’s leaders visited Nyarugwe claiming authority over his claim. According to Nyarugwe, the respondents began attempting to take advantage of the special grant to chase away his workers, occupy his shafts, and seize ore.

By August 2025, the syndicate had allegedly moved onto Nyarugwe’s shafts and started mining. He reported the incursions to the Provincial Mining Director and to the police. After the authorities ordered both parties to respect boundary beacons, the respondents allegedly escalated their actions.

On 20 January 2026, they again invaded the shafts, and a week later, they reportedly chased away his employees.

The breaking point came when the respondents allegedly loaded a 10-tonne truck with gold ore from Nyarugwe’s shafts. Justice Muzenda highlighted that this crucial allegation was not disputed: “The ore which was ferried by the first respondent was extracted from the applicant’s shafts, this was not disputed.”

In opposing the application, the respondents argued that the matter was simply a boundary dispute requiring a Surveyor-General’s report and that they were operating within their allocated area. They claimed the case was “camouflaged” as spoliation to avoid the proper administrative processes.

But the judge rejected this, saying the core issue was forced dispossession, not boundary demarcation. “The cause of action is the invasion on applicant’s mine by the first to third respondents without a court order,” he said, adding that the respondents were “literally dispossessing the applicant of his claims.”

Muzenda found that the official beacons recognised by the Ministry of Mines, police, EMA, and Fidelity Gold Refinery confirmed Nyarugwe’s lawful occupation, and there was no justification for the syndicate’s actions. “I am therefore satisfied that applicant has managed to prove that he was in peaceful and undisturbed possession of the mining shafts,” he held.

The court ordered Chimurenga Mining Syndicate, Manyuchi and Mahiya to “restore peaceful and undisturbed possession” of the mining block to Nyarugwe immediately and to pay the costs of the application. *_-NewZimbabwe_*