When A Global Health Campaign Goes Awry (Harvard Edition)

UPDATE 1: The Harvard Global Health Catalyst has now posted a retraction of the announcement that “Auxillia Mnangagwa was honorary ambassador of the Harvard Global Health Catalyst...To be clear, neither [Mrs.] Mnangagwa or any other person is appointed an ambassador, honorary or otherwise of any Harvard entity.”

UPDATE 2:  After the police blocked his departure, VOA is reporting that Dr. Peter Magombeyi has left the country to seek medical treatment.

Celebrities and politicians are regularly enlisted to help raise the profile of global health campaigns. That’s why the United Nations called for First Ladies to use their platforms to promote health. And an initiative based at Harvard University, the Global Health Catalyst Summit, duly responded by naming Auxilia Mnangagwa, wife of Zimbabwe’s president, as an “honorary Ambassador“ because she helps an NGO that supports cancer screening. This would all be fine if Mrs. Mnangagwa‘s husband were not also presiding over the near total collapse of the country’s health care system.

Doctors' wages have plunged to about $100 per month, there are few medicines available, large parts of the capital have no running water, and one third of the population will need food aid to avoid starvation this year. It’s so bad that none of the Zimbabwe’s elites get healthcare in their own country; indeed President Robert Mugabe died on September 6 in Singapore where he had been seeking treatment for years. Under both Mugabe and Mnangagwa, who came to power in a November 2017 coup, there’s plenty of money for private jets but no funds for clinics. Harvard should have known all of this.

Harvard should also have known that the timing was stomach-churning. The same week they were bestowing Mrs. Mnangagwa with accolades for her contributions to health, Dr. Peter Magombeyi, the head of the national doctors’ association, was abducted, almost certainly by state agents close to or under the direction of Mr. Mnangagwa. On the very same day that Harvard released this press release, Dr. Magombeyi was dumped on a road, dazed and confused, with signs of torture including probable electrocution of his genitals. As of writing, the government is still refusing to allow Dr. Magombeyi to go to South Africa for medical care.

Harvard also should be particularly sensitive these days about misuse of their brand. But it seems that the university did not conduct even basic due diligence in this case.

Meanwhile, the Ivy League honor is already being used inside Zimbabwe as propaganda to legitimize the regime and infer endorsement from the halls of American power and prestige.

That’s why we both joined an exemplary group of former officials and diplomats, including the four most recent US ambassadors to Zimbabwe, in calling on Harvard to rescind the honor and disassociate themselves from Mrs. Mnangagwa.

Global health campaigns should absolutely leverage prominent politicians and celebrities to promote outcomes in the public interest, but they should not be allowed to cleanse the sins of tyrants and torturers. Harvard, you can do better.

The open letter

Read the open letter here or below.

Call to Rescind “Honorary Ambassadorship” to Zimbabwean First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa

ATTN: Dr. Wilfred Ngwa (Director, Harvard Global Health Catalyst)
CC: Lawrence Bacow (President, Harvard University), Dr. George Daley (Dean, Faculty of Medicine)

We collectively write to you today with profound concern over your decision to honor the First Lady of Zimbabwe, Auxilia Mnangagwa, with an honorary ambassadorship as part of your otherwise noble institutional efforts to increase access to women’s health and to reduce healthcare disparities in the developing world. To be blunt, your well-intentioned work in these areas are tainted by the affiliation with Ms. Mnangagwa and her direct personal connection to an increasingly corrupt and abusive administration in which tolerance for dissent is nonexistent and democratic rights are violently denied. According to credible human rights organizations – both domestic and international – more than 50 government critics and activists have been abducted in Zimbabwe over the past nine months.

The most pertinent example is that of Dr. Peter Magombeyi, president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, who “disappeared” on September 14 and was discovered five days later, left on the side of a road, disoriented, and suffering from the effects of torture. According to local reports, among the acts of violence committed against Dr. Magombeyi – while he was in the custody of suspected state agents – was the use electroshock torture. While the case of Dr. Magombeyi is indeed alarming, his ordeal is merely the latest in a raft of disappearances carried out in Zimbabwe, over the course of several decades, and since President Mnangagwa seized power in a November 2017 military coup.

In light of the concerning situation in Zimbabwe, we implore your institution to exercise due diligence in this matter and to consider rescinding this honor to First Lady Mnangagwa – an honor that should be reserved for those who are truly deserving of such recognition. Too often, repressive regimes will use international institutions, like Harvard University, to launder their oppressive practices and overall reputations. Already, the announcement of this honor has been used in Zimbabwean state media to provide a veneer of ill-gotten legitimacy for an exceedingly authoritarian regime – one in which prominent health professionals, like Dr. Peter Magombeyi, are being forcefully abducted from their homes and tortured with impunity.

Please reconsider your decision. We look forward to engaging with you on this important matter.

Respectfully yours,

Ambassador (ret) Harry Thomas
United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe (2015-2018)

Ambassador (ret) Bruce Wharton
United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe (2012-2015)

Ambassador (ret) Charles Ray
United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe (2009-2012)

Ambassador (ret) Christopher Dell
United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe (2004-2007)

Ambassador (ret) Michelle Gavin
United States Ambassador to Botswana (2011-2014)

Ambassador (ret) John Campbell
Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Ambassador (ret) William M. Bellamy
Co-Chair, Zimbabwe Working Group

Chester A. Crocker
Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

Dr. Todd Moss
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

Grant Harris
Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs

Steven Feldstein
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

Nicole Willett
Former Director for African Affairs, National Security Council

Jon Temin
Former U.S. State Department Policy Planning Staff
Co-Chair, Zimbabwe Working Group

Emily Renard
Former U.S. State Department Foreign Affairs Officer
Co-Chair, Zimbabwe Working Group

Amanda Glassman
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
MSc Harvard School of Public Health

Jeffrey Smith
Founding Director, Vanguard Africa

Harvard’s announcement

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