By Paul Nyathi

President Emerson Mnangagwa has conceded to pressure from the striking doctors and nurses and agreed to their demands.

Reliable ZimEye.com sources indicate that, government has offered to increase salaries for all Ministry of Health staff by 50% with effect from the 1st of April.

According to the sources, the offer by government which is yet to be tabled to the workers representatives includes access to motor vehicle loans and a fifty percent upwards review of night allowances for the health staff.

The reports also indicate that government has promised to urgently look into the supply of drugs and medical equipment at the hospitals to improve working conditions for the workers.

Government hospitals doctors have been on strike since the first of this month demanding for a review of their salaries and working conditions.

Nurses temporarily joined the strike last week but on agreement amongst themselves quickly resolved to go back to work for the sake of the patients who were dying in numbers at the hospitals due to lack of medical attention.

The industrial action by the doctors is the first major labour dispute under President Mnangagwa, who replaced Robert Mugabe in November.

Explaining their key demands to journalists when the strike started, Mxolisi Ngwenya
spokesman for the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), which represents more than 1 000 members said that their action was for the good of the patients.

“The main issue we have raised currently is that it does not make sense for us to continue working in hospitals that do not have any drugs or sufficient equipment,” said Ngwenya,

The government had not, as agreed four years ago, increased on-call allowances for doctors to $10 an hour from the current $1.50, and had failed to fulfil other promises for better compensation and working conditions.

Junior doctors, have been earning a basic monthly salary of $329 before allowances and were yet to get duty-free vehicles as agreed previously with government.