Zimpapers Logo

Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
A Kwekwe man has been arrested for masquerading as a medical practitioner and operating a surgery in the mining town without proper requirements.

Emmanuel Machaya (37) popularly known as Dr Togara was nabbed by police detectives acting on a tipoff that he was operating without requisite papers. Machaya was arrested after a team made up of Ministry of Health and Child Care officials and those from the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZIMA) carried out investigations before tipping police officers.

The investigating team reportedly also discovered that Machaya dropped out of college before he could complete his sonographic course.

He was granted $5000 bail when he appeared before Kwekwe Magistrate Ms Samukelisiwe Gumbo facing charges of contravening the Health Professions Act.

He was facing three counts of operating without a practising certificate, masquerading or presenting himself as a member of ZIMA and operating an unregistered health institution.

For the State, Mr Kudakwashe Mazorodze told the court that members of the ZIMA in the capital, got wind that Machaya was masquerading as a medical practitioner and was administering medication to patients.

“On 22 February 2021 around 11am, a team of Government health inspectors from Harare went to Medical Oasis Surgery in Kwekwe after they received information to the effect that the accused, who is an unregistered sonographer, was purporting to be a medical doctor and treating unsuspecting members of the public,” Mazorodze told the court.

The team, the court heard, then inspected the bogus health institution and discovered that operations were in full swing after they discovered patients’ records bearing the accused’s name as the attending doctor, surgical instruments and drugs amongst other things.

The team, after ascertaining that the surgery was not properly registered and was operating without proper paperwork, then tipped off ZRP Kwekwe Central.

After carrying out their own investigations, Machaya was arrested while on “duty” attending to some patients and dragged to court.