THE Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association has announced that its members
who had resumed duty on Monday will be withdrawing their services on Tuesday to
join the rest of their counterparts who did not report for duty.
This makes a lot of sense. What is the point of going back to work if
your pay does not cover even the bare essentials such as transport, food, etc.?
In Zimbabwe we have government that is arguing junior doctors, teachers,
etc. to continue working because patients and student are “entitled to health
care and education”.
So if doctors and teachers are not paid enough to cover their transport,
food and other bare necessities to sustain life common sense will tell you
there will be no doctors in our hospitals and no teachers in our schools.
The irony is that Zimbabwe is not a poor nation. In 1980, when the
country gained her independence it was a middle income nation, with a robust
national economy and all the potential to be the South Korea of Africa. 38
years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have destroyed the
nation’s economy. Today, we are the poorest nation in Africa.
We have the few filthy rich ruling elite who live in their palatial
mansions, with fleets of posh cars, have many multi-million dollar farms and
other business interests, 45 gold watches, etc. They are renowned for the
extravagant lifestyles. They are not particularly bothered that the country’s
education and health services have all but collapse; they have stop using the
local schools and hospitals a long time ago.
The filthy rich few are but islands in a growing ocean expense of the
millions living in abject poverty.
To accuse the junior doctors or the teachers of neglecting the patience
and the students in pursuit of “their own advantage” as Adam Smith would put it
is to miss the point completely. If these doctors and teachers had been after
their own self-interest then they would have abandoned their posts a long time
ago.
They are doing so now because they do not have the money to pay for
their transport, they cannot work on an empty stomach, etc.
As much as some people would like to discuss Zimbabwe’s problems
in terms of economic policies, resource management, etc. these will not be
enough to solve our problems.
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker
that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We
address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk
to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.” argued the great
economist Adam Smith.
Adam Smith’s ideas are sound, still they would not solve Zimbabwe’s
problems because our problems are not so much about sound economics but about
the insatiable greed of the few ruling elite.
“It is not from the benevolence of the few filthy rich ruling elite that
we expect our dinner, their greed in insatiable. They appeal to the junior
doctor’s humanity to work for nothing in appalling conditions. Meanwhile the
ruling elite squander US$ 3 million sending a chef to Singapore for eye
treatment!” to paraphrase Adam Smith.
“We, the people, should address ourselves not to the ruling elite’s
humanity but to their selfishness and greed.
“Zimbabwe’s political system in which the ruling elite enjoy absolute
power to rig elections and stay in power regardless of the democratic wish of
the people is the cancer killing the nation. Zanu PF thugs do not have the
divine right to rule Zimbabwe; they usurped the people’s power and we must
restore democratic accountability now before it is too late!”
In short, we should not blame the junior doctors or teacher for refusing
to give of their services at great expense to themselves. We should blame the
ruling elite for creaming off the nation’s wealth to pay for their extravagant
lifestyles at the expense of the nation. It is the ruling elite’s fault that we
we are in this economic mess.
Our number one problem is one of bad governance. Mnangagwa and his junta
will never admit that they have failed to govern our primary task is to make
sure the people’s democratic right to have a meaningful say on who governs the
nation is restored and respected!
“Government will make an offer in terms of ameliorating the plight of the civil service in the areas that they have demanded,” said Minister July Moyo.
ReplyDeletePeople like July Moyo, Emmerson Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF leaders have been at the very heart of government for the last 38 years and know how bad things are out there. They know to pay the junior doctor a poverty datum line salary of US$650 the government will have to increase their 385 Bond Notes or US$129 (at 3:1) by 400%. To say nothing of the money government will have to spend to make sure hospitals and clinics have medicines, ambulances, bandages, gloves, etc. And yet to listen to July Moyo, one would be forgiven to believe government will have all these things done.
Only a seasoned Zanu PF politician would make such a sweeping promise, knowing fully well government has no money to meet even a fraction of the demands, and yet have no qualms of the consequence of failing to deliver on the promises.
In the 2013 elections the party promised to create 2.2 million new jobs in the next five years. The country lost more jobs than it ever created in the next five year and, as expected, the people never held the party to account. The party went on to rig the 2013 elections and then the 2018 elections that followed; the people had no democratic say whatsoever, never did.
Yes junior doctors, teachers and all the other civil servants must press even harder for their just demands for a living wage. We, the ordinary people, must join them in demanding that government properly fund our hospitals, schools and other basic services that have all but collapsed.
At the heart of all our demand is the demand for a government that is democratically accountable to the people. At the heart of all our demands is an end to the culture of rigged elections which has given this Zanu PF regime the arrogance to ignore our demands in the past with impunity.
@ Sibanda
ReplyDeleteThe regime has "heard the plight of civil servants" and you would think government is finally going to offer the the civil servant a living wage! Not a chance!
Former national healing minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu has said only widespread protests against the President Emmerson Mnangagwa government was the only way to save the country from total collapse.
ReplyDeleteThe call by Mzila-Ndlovu comes at a time separate mass protests have been organised by the MDC and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) as public disenchantment against the Mnangagwa-led administration continues to grow.
"The general public should forget about things ever getting better in Zimbabwe, since Mthuli Ncube has openly declared that they should brace for harder times," Mzila Ndlovu told Southern News.
"Things can never get harder than this … they have been thrown into poverty and things will continue to go deep as long as Zanu-PF is in charge of this economy," he said.
I agree 100% that the economic meltdown will only get worse because Zanu PF has failed to address the essential requirements such as ending corruption, lifting the pariah state curse, etc. for meaningful economic recovery.
I do not agree that mass protest was the only way to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. If MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms agreed at the on set of the 2008 GNU we would be talking of a totally different Zimbabwe, one in which there are free, fair and credible elections. It is a great pity that even now with the benefit of hindsight MDC leaders like Mzila-Ndlovu are still hiding behind their fingers and will not admit that they sold-out big time on reform!
MDC leaders are arguing the people to join in the street protest to remove Zanu PF from office so that they, MDC, can take over. We are all supposed to assume that MDC leaders will not sell-out again!
This country needs honest leaders to move forward and not the corrupt and murderous Zanu PF thugs or MDC sell-outs!