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In December 2021, Setfree Mafukidze, his wife and four children moved to Somerset in the United Kingdom, joining a long list of health workers who have fled Zimbabwe to escape economic and political turmoil.
Zimbabwean nurses have said that their “morale is at its lowest ever” while accusing the government of neglecting their welfare and crafting laws that suppress their right to look for better jobs in other countries. The Government of Zimbabwe is amending the law to ban nurses and other health professionals from leaving the country looking for jobs. The argument being given by authorities is that the country is suffering a brain drain.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed the Health Services Amendment Bill into law, which prohibits government health workers from going on strikes that lasts longer than three days and mandates that they continue to provide emergency services even while on strike.
Some medical professionals did not benefit from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s US dollar bonus facility because they do not have foreign currency accounts, the Health Ministry confirmed.
Zimbabwe’s biggest nurses union said on Wednesday it was encouraging its members to end a pay strike which started in June and which forced major hospitals to turn away patients at a time the country is fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
The striking nurses, who were struck off the July payroll, have vowed not to return to work until the new Health minister Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has addressed their demands.
At least 12 nurses were arrested in Zimbabwe on Monday when they were demonstrating against their working conditions, complaining that they do not have adequate protective gear to safely treat COVID-19 patients.
NURSES at public health institutions have announced that they are cutting their working hours to two days per week, pending action on their grievances by their employer, failure of which they will down tools.
The crisis at the country’s public hospitals is worsening as nurses have further cut the days they will be reporting for duty at State hospitals from three to two days a week citing the biting economic conditions.
Government will suspend recruitment of trainee nurses with effect from May next year, Health and Child Care Secretary Dr Gerald Gwinji has said.