Zimbabwe doctors strike justified or not?

I have been reading and participating in various discussions concerning the ongoing strike by doctors in Zimbabwe. I would say I significant number of Zimbabweans at home and abroad are in support of the strike and are saying that Government should give them a pay increment and improve their conditions of service.

So last night I came across this tweet by Dr Chipo Dendere, "For those saying doctors are being selfish - what can one do with $329/month? We need our doctors focused on the job not trying to figure out side jobs to survive. With $329 surely what can they do for themselves and their families? This is unfair, insulting & skewed priorities".

For those who do not know her, she considers herself an expert on African expert and was recently campaigning for the extension of sanctions against Zimbabwe before the US Congress.

Anyway what quipped my attention was how in her tweet she says our doctors deserve better and that they cannot afford to survive on 329 a month. Dendere expects Government do act on this. The same Government which she recently said must not be allowed to economically thrive unless it undertakes political reforms. Her statement to the US Congress and her posturing on social media expose her for the disgusting charlatan she is. On the one hand she wants to be seen as standing in support of the junior doctors, while on the other hand she is viciously fighting for the doctors' employer, Government, to have every avenue of revenue and finance shut off.

Anyway I digress, junior doctors in Zimbabwe have becomes notorious of holding Government hostage every other year. In fact when you look at it, each time a new batch of junior doctors comes through Government hospitals they embark on industrial action. One nurse commented that while the junior doctors just like every other civil servant is in need of a salary increment; the doctors seem to believe that they are a special case and have to receive special treatment. A senior doctor has also indicated that one of the key drivers of the junior doctors' strikes has to do with their representatives who believe that their industrial action has to be bigger and better than the previous strike. And how does one measure whether the strike has been bigger and better than the previous one, by the number of patients who die.

That civil servants have gone for years without a salary increment and that their salaries are way below the poverty line is not up for debate. The bulk of Government's expenditure is salaries, these same meagre amounts that civil servants are receiving. And the only way that these salaries can improve is if the country's economic fortunes increase through foreign investment. Unfortunately Zimbabwe still has a long way to go politically for us to realise meaningful investment that would translate into better salaries for all civil servants and not just doctors.

Lets us say for arguments sake that doctors were to receive a salary increment that puts them at par with their counterparts in the region. Outside of the doctors living a better life what benefit will it be for the society at large? Doctors suddenly earning thousands will not improve conditions in hospitals, in fact conditions at hospital will worsen as funds for medicines and other administrative functions would have been diverted to salaries. We certainly cannot expect Government to divert funds for the education sector towards doctors' salaries.

Furthermore, an increment for doctors will trigger calls for same from all the other civil servants and the country will just become ungovernable.

It is quite interesting that doctors who take an oath to care for patients no matter the circumstance have become the chief culprits in holding Government hostage. What sought of a doctor leaves a patient in need of care, a person who could otherwise lose their life, and stands picketing - a mercenary doctor.

I am however not giving Government a free pass on this issue. It is the responsibility of every employer to give their employee a salary that is commensurate with the labour laws and whatever scale is agreed upon during negotiations. It is therefore unacceptable that Government splashes funds on useless projects and lets fraudsters such as Wicknell Chivhayo get away with misusing taxpayers money, buying shoes and going on exotic holidays.

The current Government has a lot of messes to clean up and a lot of wrongs to right. One such mess is the rot at the Ministry of Health and Child Care. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that Zimbabwe is turning over a new life and I say charity begins at home, Mr President. Zimbabwe cannot be open for business when its greatest resource, citizens, have to make do with poor health facilities.