THE NGO NETWORK ALLIANCE PROJECT - an online community for Zimbabwean activists  
 View archive by sector
 
 
    HOME THE PROJECT DIRECTORYJOINARCHIVESEARCH E:ACTIVISMBLOGSMSFREEDOM FONELINKS CONTACT US
 

 


Back to Index

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

    Visit the ZINASU fact sheet

    Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

    TOP