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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Strikes and Protests 2007/8 - Doctors and Nurses strikes
ZINASU's
solidarity message on the indefinite strike action by junior and
senior doctors of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINASU)
January 08, 2007
On behalf of
the youths in this country, and especially the ever dynamic and
ever conscious students represented by the Zimbabwe National Students
Union (ZINASU), we wish to heartily announce our unalloyed support
and sympathy for the strike action embarked upon by the junior and
senior doctors, technically referred to as Resident Medical Officers
(SRMOs). However, our hearts are with the suffering patients and
we will hold Mugabe and his cronies accountable for any loss of
life.
On a very sincere
note, it is really hard to accept the sad reality confronting the
health sector in the country, as at today. Many Zimbabweans do not
realize how indifferent the government of the day has proved to
this vital factor in the empowerment of the health practitioners.
Without any recourse to unfair criticisms, the facts speak out so
eloquently that one is constrained to see doctors point in their
strike actions, which has bedeviled the health sector for the past
several years. What is disheartening and difficult to reason with
is that this shameful neglect should continue even if the country
is facing acute shortage of doctors.
The government
is determined that there is no future for this country. It is illogical
to understand that a junior doctor can get a meager salary of $ZW56
000, which translate to US$18 per month using the real competitive
exchange rate when one Gideon Gono has the guts to purchase the
world's fastest car worth more than US$339 000. Doctors are playing
a more critical role than Gono and why the government is failing
to set up a facility enabling them to import cars for mobility sake?
It is on record that Mugabe and his quack revolutionaries are seeking
medical treatment from outside the country while the rest a made
to fight for service at dilapidated, under funded and understaffed
public health institutions in the country. The inflation is hovering
around 1200%, which is the highest in the world and it goes without
saying that it is only Zimbabwean doctors in the whole world that
are living below the poverty datum line. What a shame!
In the past,
ZINASU has largely played a lukewarm role in supporting any Doctor's
strike, but we boldly declare that, as from today, that has become
a thing of the past. Concerning the recent strike action, we wish
to inform relevant authorities that, in her revolutionary manner,
ZINASU will rise to resist any attempt by the government to shy
away from real issues at stake and engage in political rhetoric.
In other words, ZINASU is saying enough is enough. The government
of today must take action to save life. We will perpetually hold
Mugabe and his gangsters accountable for the loss of life emanating
from the loss of morale among Doctors. Since the future is ours
as youths, it is incumbent on us to protect it from imminent extinction.
Before his untimely
death in the hands of desperate racist gunmen in the United States
in 1969, Martin Luther King Jnr rightly observed that a mind is
a terrible thing to waste.
Washington Katema
National Coodinator
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fact
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