MDC Statement on doctors strike

15 March 2018

The ongoing strike by doctors and nurses at the country’s major referal hospitals bears testimony to the disastrous 100 days of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s time in office. The unfolding events in the health sector are showing that the only thing President Mnangagwa’s administration has amassed to date is a pile of dead bodies in public hospitals.

The rapid deteriorating health standards under the junta administration are alarming. The fact that a junior doctor can be made to earn $369 per month before allowances shows that the health sector is clearly not a priority for the government. Public hospitals are ill equipped, and have infact become death traps themselves.

We were told by President Mnangagwa’s government that $250 million has been recovered to date from looters. Why is that money not going towards redressing the state of affairs in the health sector?

This industrial action that has endangered lives of thousands of patients is no doubt a direct result of Government stubbornness, incompetence and misplaced priorities.

Doctors are simply asking for drugs, functional equipment and better remuneration so they can better perform their duty of saving lives. What hospital can function without basic requirements such as gloves and drugs?

Government should as a matter of urgency address doctors’ concerns to avoid the suffering and deaths of patients. This is a matter that has been ignored for far too long. Patients should not have to die in their thousands first before government considers attending to doctors’ plight.

Surely the absence of doctors in health institutions during a time of frequent outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid and cholera is toying with human life.

As MDC we are convinced that Mnangagwa and his government do not care about the welfare of people.

Zimbabweans should not be hoodwinked by the ‘New Dispensation’ mantra that is being forced down their throats via the state media.
Facts are stubborn. And right now they show President Mnangagwa has glaringly failed to expeditiously attend to grievances raised by health workers, instead he has been turning a deaf ear and threatening to fire them while patients are dying in hospitals. Is this someone Zimbabweans want to elect as President in the forthcoming elections? We think not.

Kurauone Chihwayi
MDC National Spokesperson