Terrence Mawawa| Pressure is mounting on Emmerson Mnangagwa’ s government as civil servants continue to push for better working conditions.

The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) has written to the Health Services Board (HSB) chairperson Paulinus Sikhosana
requesting to be paid in United States dollars as stated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement of
March 2018.

The request by doctors comes after
the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) also requested to be paid in foreign currency. Doctors also requested to be given non-monetary
incentives such as fuel. Part of the letter reads:

“Also, the sellers prefer foreign currency and some are not accepting
Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)
currency. In addition to that, the
Collective Bargaining Agreement of
March 2018 states that our salaries are paid in US dollars. As of this month, our members were paid in RTGS and cannot access basic goods and commodities, let alone travel to work.We implore the government to pay salaries in US dollars as previously agreed.

Furthermore, we request non-
monetary incentives such as fuel to be available to our members and the civil service at government-prescribed rates. Most hospitals have fuel tanks.”

In the letter, which was copied to the Minister of Health and Child Care Obadiah Moyo, and the

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, doctors also urged the government to unfreeze posts.