Chiwenga roped in to engage doctors

Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has been roped into help negotiate an end to the strike by mainly junior doctors which began at the beginning of this month.

Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Chiwenga will not be involved directly with the negotiations but will be updated daily by the Minister of Health.

The doctors, who have been joined by senior doctors are striking over poor remuneration and the lack of drugs in hospitals.

Health Minister Obadiah Moyo said the government had ordered some drugs and they were on their way.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube appealed to the doctors to go back to work for the sake of the patients.

“We value our junior doctors and all our health workers and of course we sympathise with their plight like we do with the plight of every Zimbabwean in this transitional situation,” he said.

“Government has done a lot in meeting the demands of the junior doctors – fuel for transportation purposes, vehicle loans and other such demands that they placed upon us and we responded. We feel that we are really doing our part in responding to their demands.”

Ncube, however, said the government could not meet the demand by civil servants to be paid in hard currency saying the government does not earn hard currency and is struggling to get enough foreign currency for fuel, drugs and the productive sector.

Asked why cabinet had decided to bring in Chiwenga when last time all he did was order doctors to go back to work without any negotiations, Mutsvangwa said Chiwenga had been brought in to show how seriously the government took the strike as it had brought in the second highest ranking person in government.

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