"My cousin died while the doctors are all on strike"
People were sitting on the ground waiting to collect a body from the morgue at the Parirenyatwa hospital, which was paralyzed by a nationwide strike by doctors.
Two of the women, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their cousin had died of kidney failure the previous day.
“She was admitted over the weekend, with an enlarged heart and kidney. It was swollen from head to toe, ”one of them told me about the ordeal.
“But there is no record that has ever been followed by a doctor. They put her on oxygen. He had been waiting for dialysis for two days. But he needed medical consent.
“Politics must be put aside, regarding health. The sick should be treated. "
Her partner told me she lost three relatives during the strike: her mother-in-law in September, her uncle last week and now her cousin.
“Saving lives should be the priority. In our neighborhood, we are recording so many funerals. It's always the same story: "They were sick and then died". It's devastating, ”he said.
There is no official data on how many people have been removed from public hospitals or who have died since the beginning of September when younger doctors stopped going to work.
But the anecdotes reveal the crisis facing Zimbabwe's public health system.
A young pregnant woman at the Parirenyatwa hospital, with a huge gash above her left eye, told me that she had been severely attacked by her husband and could no longer hear her baby move.
She had been removed from a public hospital and was trying her luck in the capital's main hospital, Harare, where she felt she could find some military doctors.
"We can't afford to get to work"
Doctors don't call it a strike, rather an "incapacity", saying they can't afford to go to work.
They call for wage increases to cope with three-digit inflation in the context of the collapse of the economy of Zimbabwe.
Most striking doctors take home less than $ 100 (£ 77) per month, not enough to buy food and groceries or to go to work.
Not long after the strike began, their union leader, dr. Peter Magombeyi, was kidnapped for five days in mysterious circumstances, one of several kidnappings this year considered critical of the government.
The authorities deny any involvement in these cases, but those caught are usually released after being beaten and threatened.
Since then 448 doctors have been fired for strike and violation of the labor court ruling ordering them to return to work. Another 150 people still face disciplinary hearings.
Ten days ago, a reporter tweeted a video showing the deserted wards of Parirenyatwa hospital, describing the scene as "empty and spooky".
They demand that the government restore the dismissed doctors and meet their wage demands.
Strikes have paralyzed the health system and even the nurses of the municipal clinics are not presenting employment relationships as they ask for a subsistence wage.
A nurse told me that her transportation costs alone absorbed half her salary.
"Deadly Traps"
It worsened conditions in a health sector that was already collapsing.
Senior doctors describe public hospitals as "deadly traps".
More information on the economic collapse of Zimbabwe:
The land where the money barons thrive
Zimbabwe descends into darkness
Is Zimbabwe worse now than under Mugabe?
For months they have faced shortages of bases such as bandages, gloves and syringes. Some recently purchased equipment is poor and outdated, they say.
The government says it cannot afford to raise wages. It is not only doctors, but the entire civil service that presses for wage increases, even if wages already represent over 80% of the national budget.
Media caption School Nyamayaro had to choose between buying medicine or food
But worker representatives say it is a priority. The best officials drive all high-end luxury vehicles and regularly seek medical treatment abroad.
In September, Robert Mugabe, the country's former president, died at age 95 in Singapore, where he had received treatment since April.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, a former army chief behind the military acquisition that led to Mugabe's fall two years ago, has just returned from four months of medical treatment in China.
Upon his return, Mr. Chiwenga stirred the doctors over the strike.
The government says it will hire medical personnel from other organizations and from abroad. Over the years Cuba has provided doctors and specialists to Zimbabwe.
Life line of the billionaire
Nobody knows how it will end.
UK-based Zimbabwe telecommunications billionaire Strive Masiyiwa offered to set up a $ 100 million Zimbabwean fund ($ 6,25 million; £ 4,8 million) to try to break the deadlock.
By the way, it would pay up to 2.000 doctors a little over $ 300 a month and provide them with transportation to work for a six-month period.
There hasn't been any reaction from doctors yet.
Zimbabwe crisis in numbers:
Inflation around 500%
60% of the 14 million food insecurity population (meaning there is not enough food for basic needs)
90% of children aged between six months and two years do not consume a minimum acceptable diet
Source: United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food
The strike divided Zimbabwe.
Tendai Biti, a former finance minister in a unity government and deputy director of the main opposition movement for democratic change (MDC), called for an urgent review of the doctors' terms of service.
"A country with a budget of 64 billion dollars cannot fail to solve this ... the problem here is leadership," he said.
Other doctors, some seen here protesting the kidnapping of Peter Magombeyi, are now not reporting that they are working
The analyst Stembile Mpofu states that it is no longer a job problem but a political one.
"It is difficult to find the position of doctors less ruthless than that of politicians regarding the population of Zimbabwe," he says.
Many here, including the association of senior doctors, have used the term "silent genocide" to describe the crisis.
So many are quietly dying. It's unclear how many more people will continue to die as this detachment approaches its third month.