Treasury is under pressure to disclose how US$27.3 million in sugar-tax revenue was spent after an MP alleged that four cancer machines were grossly overpriced. The post Zimbabwe’s Treasury under fire over dodgy US$27.3m cancer equipment expenditure appeared first on Nehanda Radio .
The Ministry of Finance has come under pressure to account for US$27.3 million in sugar-tax revenue after an opposition legislator alleged that four cancer-treatment machines procured for Zimbabwe’s two largest referral hospitals were grossly overpriced.
Mbizo MP Corban Madzivanyika raised the allegations in the National Assembly during debate on the 2026 Mid-Term Fiscal Review, arguing that the reported expenditure could not be justified by the equipment delivered.
Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube rejected the claim that the entire amount represented the purchase price of four radiotherapy machines, saying the expenditure covered a broader package that included diagnostic equipment, medicines and other healthcare supplies.
Madzivanyika told Parliament that, according to his assessment, each cancer machine should cost no more than US$500,000 after duty and freight charges.
Mbizo Constituency MP, Corban Madzivanyika (Picture via Facebook – Corban Madzivanyika)
Applying that estimate to four machines would produce a total cost of about US$2 million — approximately US$25.3 million below the expenditure reported by Treasury.
“Each machine costs US$500,000 at maximum, including duty and also freight charges, but we are seeing the Government spending US$27 million for four cancer machines,” Madzivanyika said.
“That is outrageous, Hon. Minister. That is totally out of this world.”
The opposition legislator alleged that public money could have been misappropriated and demanded an investigation into the procurement process.
“How can four cancer machines cost US$27 million? That is fraud. It must be followed up,” he said.
“I want to bet my last dollar that our money has been stolen on this one. Please conduct investigations and prosecute the people involved.”
Madzivanyika did not present documentary evidence in Parliament supporting his US$500,000 estimate or identifying the manufacturers and specifications against which he based the comparison.
Ncube said it was inaccurate to treat the US$27.3 million as the price of only four radiotherapy machines because other medical equipment, drugs and supplies were included in the programme.
However, the finance minister acknowledged that the prices paid could still warrant examination.
“I will use a different word, value for money, that perhaps in terms of the pricing, there may not have been value for money and I should check that,” Ncube said.
“If he has some information, I will encourage him to give it to me directly and then I can investigate appropriately.”
Ncube did not provide Parliament with an itemised breakdown showing how much was paid for the four radiotherapy machines and how the remaining money was distributed among the additional equipment, medicines and supplies.
His explanation differs from earlier public descriptions of the procurement. In June, Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora said four radiotherapy machines — two multi-energy and two low-energy units — had been procured during the programme’s first phase and that the “total cost came to about US$27 million”. He added that the package included two CT scanners. NewZimbabwe.com
Government reports from December 2025 also listed a wider range of equipment, including MRI scanners, infusion and syringe pumps, patient monitors, laboratory analysers and video laryngoscopes, under the sugar-tax-funded health programme. The Herald
The controversy is particularly sensitive because the money was collected through Zimbabwe’s sugar-content tax, introduced in the 2024 National Budget to finance cancer treatment and other public-health interventions.
Earlier in the parliamentary debate, Zanu-PF legislator Clemence Chiduwa welcomed the reported use of US$27.3 million for two high-level and two low-energy radiotherapy machines at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and Mpilo Central Hospital.
Chiduwa called for cancer-treatment services to be expanded beyond the two referral hospitals and eventually made available at district level.
The Government says the new machines will reduce a radiotherapy backlog affecting hundreds of patients. Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have struggled for years with obsolete and frequently non-functional cancer-treatment equipment.
However, the absence of a detailed public cost breakdown leaves Treasury facing demands to disclose the equipment purchased, suppliers contracted and amounts paid for each item.
