Champions Without Borders
Health Taxes Collected, NCD Fund Missing — Patients Still Paying the Price
Dear Editor,
I am writing on behalf of Champions Without Borders, a network of People With Lived Experience of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), to propose an investigative public-interest story with strong national relevance:
Zimbabwe is collecting health taxes in the name of NCDs — yet the promised National NCD Fund is not visible, operational, or publicly accounted for.
Between the 2022 and 2025 National Budgets, Government introduced or increased multiple “public health taxes” (tobacco excise duty, energy drink levy, sugar-sweetened beverage levy, and fast-food tax). These measures were justified as protecting public health and, crucially, as a means to establish a ring-fenced National NCD Fund.
Citizens are paying these taxes daily.
However, people living with cancer, diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease report no improvement in access to care, continued out-of-pocket spending, and deepening financial hardship.
This issue raises serious questions around:
Public finance transparency and accountability
Implementation gaps between budget promises and lived reality
Constitutional compliance, particularly Section 76(2), which guarantees people living with chronic illness the right to access basic healthcare
Zimbabwe’s commitments to Universal Health Coverage and domestic health financing, reiterated at WHA78
This is not an abstract policy debate. It is a human story about:
Patients delaying or abandoning treatment
Families selling assets to survive illness
A health tax regime that collects revenue without delivering visible health benefit
Champions Without Borders can support this story with:
First-hand testimonies from affected patients
A clear timeline of budget statements vs implementation
Key accountability questions for Treasury and the Ministry of Health
Civil society and patient perspectives often missing from official narratives
We believe this story aligns strongly with the role of independent media in holding power to account and centring citizen impact.
We would welcome the opportunity to engage further.
Kind regards,
Jacob Ngwenya
Lead Advocate
Champions Without Borders
+263785837994
Cwbzim@gmail.com
#HealthTaxesWithoutHealthCare #WhereIsTheNCDFund
