Zimbabwe's richest man steps in to get striking, fired doctors back to work
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwe’s richest man and telecoms tycoon, Strive Masiyiwa, has come to the rescue of striking and fired doctors, offering huge wages and perks on top of their monthly wages.
This comes as most junior and senior doctors working in the public sector are on strike over paltry wages whereby the lowest doctor is earning the equivalent of US$80 against a cost of living of around US$250 a month.
Junior doctors embarked on a strike on September 3, 2019 while their seniors did so on Tuesday in protest to government firing 448 of the junior medical practitioners to date.
However, through the Higherlife Foundation (HLF), a charity organization owned by Masiyiwa who has an estimated net worth of US$2.7 billion, launched a new training fellowship to support junior and senior resident officers.
“In order for our healthcare system to continue having this continuous in-flow of doctors, it is important for junior and senior residents to complete their training within the designated time period. With that in mind, HLF is launching, the medical training completion fellowship with immediate effect for those junior and senior resident officers who are in full time employment at public hospitals within Zimbabwe,” read part of the HLF statement.
“The scholarship covers those who are currently undergoing a Junior or Senior Resident programme… The ZWL (Zimbabwe dollar)$100 million fellowship will last six months, with funding contingent upon fellows remaining enrolled in their programmes for that period.”
Under this fellowship, up to 2,000 doctors will be paid ZWL$5,000 (US$301.20) monthly on top of what they are already earning from the state, a monthly subsistence allowance, smartphone, transport, medical equipment, and free WiFi.
Doctors, like many workers in Zimbabwe, are having to contend with wages that are increasingly being eroded by the local currency.
This is due to the currency being reintroduced in June as the sole legal tender without adequate foreign currency and market confidence backing.
So far, government has only offered to double the doctors wages which has been rejected by the medical practitioners as it would still lag behind the monthly cost of living.
“There are ongoing efforts to normalise the situation. The labour courts ruled the incapacitation by the doctors as unlawful. It went further to order that the doctors go back to their work within two days which if they did not, would allow for disciplinary action,” Health minister Obadiah Moyo, during a parliamentary session said on Wednesday.
“Even after that, Government continued encouraging the doctors to come back to work but they did not. There was no alternative but to start the disciplinary action.”
He said since the doctors withdrew their services most central hospitals are operating below 40 percent capacity.
-0- PANA TZ/AR 28Nov2019
