HARARE – Hospitals and clinics across Zimbabwe have been supplied with Starlink satellite internet kits under a government connectivity drive but many are unable to use them because they cannot afford the monthly subscription fees, parliament heard on Wednesday.
Kariba MP Shine Gwangwaba (CCC) raised the issue during oral questions without notice in the National Assembly, telling lawmakers that “hospitals have been given Starlink kits but they cannot afford to subscribe, they are just keeping them.”
Gwangwaba asked what could be done to help hospitals raise the necessary funds.
Health and child care minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora had earlier told the National Assembly that more than 400 clinics had been fitted with solar power and Starlink kits, with a target of extending the network to more than 700 clinics.
Responding to Gwangwaba, Mombeshora acknowledged the funding gap.
“Indeed, we have received those challenges and we are engaging the agents to lower the subscriptions so that we can pay for all those Starlink kits that we will install,” he said, adding that negotiations with the service provider were under way.
Chinhoyi MP Leslie Mhangwa (CCC) proposed that the subscription costs be met through the Universal Services Fund (USF), the levy-funded mechanism already used to subsidise connectivity for schools, libraries and base stations in remote areas.
Information, communication technology, postal and courier services minister Tatenda Mavetera confirmed that the USF currently funds subscriptions mainly for digital centres and schools, and only for a year at a time.
“We also need to do the same for hospitals, which I think is worth considering,” Mavetera told MPs, adding that she would take up the matter with the health ministry to explore extending USF support to hospitals, which currently fall outside the fund’s scope.
No timeline was given for when a resolution on subscription funding for the affected hospitals might be reached.
