At 5pm at the Victoria Falls border post, Margaret Tshuma – who has a 24-hour day pass to be in Zambia – is in a rush to return home to Zimbabwe before dusk.
This is not the first time Tshuma, 53, has travelled from her rural home in Diki village, 120km (75 miles) away, to cross into Zambia for the day. It has become a routine trip she makes monthly to buy medication for her husband who has scleritis – an inflammatory condition that affects the outer covering of the eye.
The prescribed medication is barely available on the shelves of pharmacies in Hwange district, where she lives. Of what is there, the high cost makes it inaccessible to many, she said.
“The same medication is expensive back home. If you add transport and medication costs altogether, it is still cheaper to come to Zambia. Also most times, some of this medication is not readily available which risks the patients’ lives,” said Tshuma.
Buying the medicines in Zimbabwe costs Tshuma about $85 a month, whereas just across the border in Livingstone she pays 320 kwacha ($13). Even with travel, it works in her favour, as a two-way trip from Hwange to Livingstone costs $14.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been hit hard by decades of economic crises and soaring inflation. Many basics are not as easily available or affordable, and Zimbabweans themselves have lost confidence in the local currency.
At the border, Tshuma follows a small queue, before officials check her luggage and papers without much trouble and stamp her 24-hour pass – a process that takes less than 10 minutes.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mike Muleya, a commuter bus operator who ferries passengers back and forth to the border area, said a significant number of people make the daily trip from Hwange – a community of some 21,300 people – to buy medicines or visit hospitals in Zambia.
According to a 2023 report by the local advocacy group Community Working Group on Health, most Zimbabweans do not have access to quality and affordable healthcare. The group has called on the government to prioritise primary healthcare to achieve universal health coverage.
Poor Zimbabweans who depend on state healthcare struggle significantly more to obtain treatment than wealthier citizens, who can turn to more expensive private services. In addition to difficulties in obtaining care, many complain of long queues at public hospitals – often requiring four to seven hours of waiting.
In Matetsi Ward 1 in Hwange Rural, 20km (12 miles) from Victoria Falls, Mercy Khumalo recounted the ordeal of taking her aunt to Zambia for treatment.
It was not an easy situation for the family, Khumalo said. Using their meagre savings and the money from selling a cow, they were finally able to get enough to afford to see a specialist at a private hospital in Zimbabwe. But after doing a cost analysis, they chose to go to Zambia instead.
“We had consulted locally and got some quotations from various specialists. Aunt was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Our neighbour told us that treatment was affordable and a pure public service in Zambia. We saw that, with the money we had, it will have been spent within a month at a private doctor locally; yet, in Zambia, we will save a lot as we monitor the situation,” she explained.
“Foreigners are allowed to use the public healthcare system in Zambia and are generally free as long as you have your passport and health records in order,” Natasha Chola Mukuka, a public health practitioner and student of medicine at Levy Mwanawasa Medical University in Lusaka, Zambia, told Al Jazeera.
Although specialists and surgery cases do attract a cost, Zimbabwean patients told Al Jazeera they find it more affordable than at home.
Credit: Al Jazeera
