Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic crisis brought about by 40
years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The economy has all but
collapsed forcing unemployment rate to soar to nauseating heights of 90%, basic
services like education and health care have collapsed and in 2019 34% of the
population were already living in “extreme poverty”, according to WB report.
When Mnangagwa seized power in the November 2017 military coup, he
was cocksure his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” would open the floodgate of
investors and kick-start the country’s comatose economy. Investors are a savvy
and shrewd lot; they could see that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by
corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs and so stayed away.
“Zimbabwe is open for business!” is dead in the water.
Worse still, it is crystal clear that this Zanu PF government has run
out of ideas what to do to revive the economy.
When you are in a hole, stop digging! One would think that is
obvious, but not to VP Constantino Chiwenga!
Trainee Doctors, just like nurses, teachers and other civil
servants, have been on strike on and off for the last two decades; demanding a
living wage and better working conditions. One of the consequences of a sick
economy, is that government not collecting enough money in tax and other public
revenue to pay civil servants a living wage and to maintain a decent education
and health care services.
Instead of VP Chiwenga and his fellow Zanu PF cronies going back
to the drawing board and think how else to revive the economy so government can
pay the doctors, etc. a living wage; he, in his infantile wisdom has come up
with a two pronged strategy:
a)
the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) is reportedly recruiting over 400
medical doctors, radiographers and pharmacists, which is the total intake of
graduate students the country.
b)
He has suspended the University of Zimbabwe’s Masters of Medicine
and Masters of Obstetrics and Gynaecology programmes and all striking
student doctors have been banned from accessing public hospitals.
VP Chiwenga must be very pleased with himself because the striking
doctors have not only ended the strike but have even apologised for having
undertaken the strike action!
“I see people saying doctors bowed down to the General (Chiwenga)!
Yes, we did! Why not? What options did we have? How long have we been fighting
for better hospitals and salaries to no avail?” commented one striking doctor
on twitter.
Actually, VP Chiwenga did not solve the health crisis no more than
the striking doctors solved their living wage and decent working conditions
demands by giving in to his arm-twisting and idiotic tactics.
As a rule of thumb, soldiers, Police and CIO are paid better wages
and have better conditions of service than most civil servants – but of course,
as befit a Police State! And so, the militarised doctors will be getting
considerably better wages, at least, compared to civil servant counter-part.
As for getting a living wage, that will not happen until there is
meaningful economic recovery. All VP Chiwenga has done is kick the can down the
road. Are we to believe the same government that had failed to pay doctors a
living wage from the Ministry of Health budget will now do so from the Ministry
of Defence’s budget?
Is ZNA going to recruit all the striking nurses too? Hospitals
will not function without nurses.
Is the Ministry of Defence also going to takeover the repair and
equipping of all the hospitals and clinics, which are in various stages of rot
and decay after decades of underfunding? There is a lot that will have to be
done to improve the conditions of service in our health care services. A hell of
a lot!
The striking doctors may have called-off the strike and apologised
to VP Chiwenga but they all know that be going back to the same poorly equipped
hospitals without PPE, basic medicine, etc. And it will not take long before
the country’s 838% inflation erode the buying power of their new wages.
For the last 40 years we, the people of Zimbabwe, have allowed
Zanu PF to ride roughshod over our freedoms, rights, hopes and dreams to
appease the regime gaining very little gain, if anything at all. Even now with
the nation’s future balancing on the knife edge some people continue to pursue
the discredited policy of appeasement!
“What options did we have?” So, you think bowing to Chiwenga’s
idiotic demands was a better option! Without the proper PPE, for example, a
military doctor is as just as susceptible to corona virus infection as a
civilian doctor!!!
Posting on Twitter Dr T Stanzo said, "I see people saying doctors bowed down to the General! Yes, we did! Why not? What options did we have? How long have we been fighting for better hospitals and salaries to no avail? We were defeated. And we have given up. We lost.
ReplyDelete"We lost. We were decimated. We were humbled. The General won."
“We were decimated. We were humbled.” How? What happened? This is not the first time doctors, nurses and many others just like you were decimated and humble. You, like all those before you, chose to be decimated and humbled!
You gave up and gained absolutely nothing! The soldier’s higher wage will all be eroded by the high inflation now at 838%. As for the conditions of service you are going to the same hospitals without PPE and no medicine.
"Zanu-PF must be delighted that the opposition insists on opposing itself. Chamisa seems to have lost his drive and his strategic energy," said Professor Chan.
ReplyDelete“There is imagination internally and externally as to the way forward. There is manuring process in Zimbabwe. There is nothing to suggest 2023 will be any better than the present.”
I have to say for once I totally agree with Professor Chan dismissal of Nelson Chamisa as one who has lost his drive and strategic energy. (As to when he did so, is a moot point. I would say all the MDC leaders lost everything during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they failed to implement even one reform.) I also agree with him that there is a total lack of imagination, internally and externally, as to the way forward.
Professor Chan admitted to being the one who advised the British Minister for Africa to attend Mnangagwa’s inauguration following the July 2018 elections to give him a chance to prove Zanu PF had changed. Well time has proven that Zanu PF had not change one bit and therefore the advice to give him a chance was ill-advised.
Kate Hoey, a Labour MP, who attended the July 2018 elections as an observer condemned the elections as a farce and advised that the Mnangagwa regime should not be given any support. That was the sound advised that has withstood the test of time. It is a great pity that the British government had listened to Professor Chan and not MP Hoey!
However, in his address to party loyalists, Mnangagwa boasted his government was aware of opponents’ movements.
ReplyDelete“You see the fake abduction staged by this other party (MDC Alliance), false abductions, but because of ICT, we are now able to trace where they walked, slept and who they talked to, we have all that now,” he boasted.
“You can’t refute it, we know at this minute, you were at this place and who did you make a phone call to.
Mnangagwa also repeated his earlier threats to deregister Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating outside their mandates.
“There are lots of registered NGOs in the country and through the Home Affairs and Social Welfare Ministries, we are going to look at the mandate of each NGO,” he said.
“So, the Minister of Home Affairs and Social Welfare, they will depend on you war veterans, youths and women party chairpersons to give them list of NGOs operating in your areas and their mandate because you are the ones on the ground.
“So, if we discover that it is operating outside its mandate. it will be deregistered.”
Zimbabwe is in serious economic trouble millions are living in extreme poverty and yet this Zanu PF regime is blind to the tragedy unfolding before us. All Zanu PF leaders care about is how they are going to consolidate their iron grip on power.
Those still calling for Zanu PF to implement the democratic reforms are whistling in the graveyard. The only realistic hope for meaningful democratic change is for Zanu PF to step down so a new body can be tasked to implement the reforms.
Posting on Twitter Dr T Stanzo said, "I see people saying doctors bowed down to the General! Yes, we did! Why not? What options did we have? How long have we been fighting for better hospitals and salaries to no avail? We were defeated. And we have given up. We lost.
ReplyDelete"We lost. We were decimated. We were humbled. The General won."
Dr Stanzo does not say how they were decimated. Still, this is not the first time doctors, nurses and many other Zimbabweans in similar situation have been "decimated and humble" into submission. And it is also not the first time they have given in with precious little to sho for it.
No wonder the country is in a real mess. VP Chiwenga knew he did not have to give an inch and the doctors will give a mile!
The people of Zimbabwe have yet to wake up to the mess the country is in and to the reality that it is for them to save the country and no one is going to do it for them!
This is pathetic! The doctors, like most other civil servants are poorly paid and their working conditions have become down right deadly to life; the industrial action was completely justified. Why they are the ones apologising beggars belief.
ReplyDeleteThe doctors were particularly concerned about finishing their studies. The truth is the quality of education in Medical School as everywhere else has done down considerably because of decades of poor funding. This is a serious matter that they should be concerned about and stop being so short sighted.
Many causes are lost not because they were not just but because those tasked to fight them were feeble of mind and spirit.
@ Nomazulu
ReplyDelete“Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr Gono told Trevor Ncube that he has a gym in his home hence he has lost so much weight. But it appears he is melting away before our eyes, we still have to stick to his version, if indeed he is rigorously active on a gym diet losing the puppy fat he accumulated under his Boss Mugabe, there is no reason to speculate otherwise we all have our health issues that no one knows. The difference between me and Gono is that he was a global figure once upon a time. I, on the aside, remained a mortal to this day.”
I totally agree with you. Whatever academic qualifications and professional post Mthuli Ncube had have all been called to question. Some of the policies he has pursued as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance lacked common sense; how can someone so highly qualified be completely devoid of common sense!
Mnangagwa brought Mthuli Ncube, Kirsty Coventry and a few other into his government to give it some credibility and respect to the international community. Of course, Ncube and company knew Zanu PF had rigged the 2018 elections and was therefore illegitimate. They still went ahead and join the administration for no other reason than selfish greed. As a nation we have to start censoring these sell-outs because no nation on earth can ever prosper with so many Judas Iscariots in our midst!
The Children of Zimbabwe War Veterans Association has alleged that a vehicle belong to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga was intercepted by police officers carrying diamond gravel about a month ago.
ReplyDeletePosting on Twitter, CZWVA said, "There is a case at Anjin Diamond mine. A truck fully loaded w (mutaka) was intercepted by @PoliceZimbabwe roadblock at Odzi near Hotspring. The driver was said it belonged to VP Chiwenga, yet for a month now the case is still hanging detectives in Mutare afraid to handle.
The organisation further alleged that the truck was returned back to the Vice President under heavy police guard.
"The Truck was returned back but under police guard. Investigations were done but a Chinese foreigner who authorized its exit is no where to be found. Nyaya ikufira pamukuru. VP Chiwenga is said to be denying the allegations. Way forward on disposal is now a problem."
We have all known that there is wholesale looting going on in Zimbabwe, especially in the diamond industry. VP Chiwenga has built his C&M mansion and amassed wealth including his 45 gold watches from looted wealth.
Zanu PF leaders have too much to lose for them to allow free, fair and credible elections. If we are serious about making sure the next elections are free, fair and credible then we must demand that Zanu PF steps down to allow the nation to implement the necessary reform. Zanu PF will never implement the reforms.
@ Hato
ReplyDelete“It's funny how the twitter warriors now come flooding in ridiculing them but when they started the strike a year ago they never got the slightest support from the masses. The issue with Zim is everyone expects someone else to solve their own problems for them whilst watching from the comfort of their homes, its always Chamisa this...Strive that....Mawarire chi chi 🙄”
This is nonsense coming from one with no clue what they are wittering about!
The doctors; just like the nurses, teachers, etc.; went on strike to demand a living wage and human working conditions. In a country where doctors are being paid US$ 300 per month with the Poverty Datum Line at US$650 per month; one can only imagine what the cleaners are being paid. Our hospitals and clinics have no clean running water for Pete’s sake let alone the PPE required for working with corona virus patients.
If the doctors did not have a good cause to go on strike for then please tell us what is a good cause?
Of course, it was foolish and a blatant act of betrayal to all the other workers who have been fighting for a living wage for the doctors to be apologising for demanding a living wage. And to make matters worse, apologise to a tyrant like VP Chiwenga whose insatiable greed is the root cause of the nation’s suffering.
VP Chiwenga lives in a multi-million dollar mansion, has amassed wealth in farms, has a fleet of posh cars, fat bank accounts, has 45 gold watches, etc., etc. The odd occasion he has visited hospitals, as Minister of Health, he wore the equivalent of the space-suit PPE because he is scarred of catching the corona virus. And yet he expects the doctors and nurses to work in these hospitals without even a face mask and for slave wages!
So, again one must ask what the doctors were apologising for?
The issue of good governance is one that concerns us all and everyone, including these idiots calling themselves doctors must play their part. By giving in the doctors have given the Zanu PF thugs that they can continue looting whilst the rest of the populous starve.
No wonder the country is in a serious mess; if the doctors, nominally the cream in society, do not have the common sense to see the country is sinking and we need change what chance is there of my aunt in the rural back waters seeing that! Like it or not Zimbabweans will have to work up to the reality that if they want to end their suffering they must stand up and demand change. As for the doctors, they can look forward to working with corona virus patients without even a face mask! Cry the beloved country!
@ Blackjecha
ReplyDelete“This writer is indeed a FOOLISH FOOL can’t the writer see that the student doctors have just decided to finish their studies and find a way out of the government system. May be go to the diaspora.”
If these are final year students wanting to finish their studies then those in their final year next year would want to do the same and so on and so forth. In short no one would take up the fight for better wages and working conditions.
Now that the students are signing contracts with the Army, they will find that it is not so easy to leave the country!
There was absolutely no excuse for the doctors to give up the fight for a living wage and human working conditions. Who do they want to fight for them?
@ Blackjecha
Delete“They did this in the best way ever. One way of dealing with an egoistic fool is to stroke their egos and sing praise. This exactly what these fools also did to Mugabe over the past decades until they eventually got what they wanted.”
Well that is a truck load of bulls***t! The doctors did tickle Chiwenga’s ego alright but what exactly did they get other than a kick in the teeth. Those idiots are expected to turnup for work at hospitals with corona virus patients without even a face mask for protection and for slave wages!
Yes Zimbabweans have foolishly allowed Mugabe to ride roughshod over them denying them their freedoms, rights and humanity for decades. He got his Blue Roof mansion, 13 farms, an extravagant lifestyle, etc., etc. He did not even bother to maintain the hospitals we inherited from Ian Smith because he and his family used the five star hospitals in Singapore! Millions of Zimbabweans live in abject poverty; is that want they wanted?