By A Correspondent- Acting spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Hospitals Doctors Association (ZHDA), Dr Mthabisi Bhebhe, said that doctors will stay at home until the government pays them what they are owed.

Writing on microblogging site Twitter, Dr Bhebhe said that as doctors, they did not take oaths to be slaves.

He wrote:

Day 44. Hospitals remain desolate and without doctors across the country.

We shall remain in our homes no matter how long it may be until Dr Obadiah Moyo and his Ministry pay what is owed to us.

No doctor in Zimbabwe or any part of the world has ever taken an oath to be a slave.”

Doctors have been on strike since September 3 this year demanding salaries that are in line with the rate of inflation.

On Friday, the Labour Court ruled that the doctors’ strike was illegal and gave them 48 hours to return to work, a directive which the doctors refused to comply with.