Posted on 07/30/2002 5:18:07 PM PDT by Clive
Robert Mugabe has accused Britain of "stealing" doctors and nurses from Zimbabwe after hundreds of medical personnel went on strike for pay rises to make up for triple-digit inflation.
Most government hospitals were paralysed yesterday, with hundreds of state-employed doctors staying away from work and describing their salaries as "pitiful".
At a nurses' conference at the weekend, Mr Mugabe said: "We have created the environment that allows that upliftment of nurses. That's why even Britain comes in the dead of night to steal our people. They are recruiting pharmacists, doctors and nurses."
Dr Howard Mutsando, 26, chairman of the Hospital Doctors' Association, said: "No one is stealing us. We don't want to leave home. We are forced to leave Zimbabwe to earn enough money to live. Many of us try to go to Britain because our studies were based on British standards."
He said the strike had been called because a pay rise promised four months ago had not materialised. "Nothing will happen if we don't take drastic action. We are worried about our patients and want to return to work.
"You have to be really committed to work in a Zimbabwe government hospital because basic materials are missing, like gloves and nasal tubes."
He began working for the state in January last year and said that of 87 graduates from his year at least 25 had already left for Britain or South Africa. "Another 10 are leaving in September and the rest of us are forced to make plans, although that is not what we want."
Junior doctors earn 53,000 Zimbabwe dollars a month, which at the official exchange rate is £595. At black market rates it equates to £53 a month.
Dr Mutsando estimated that there were about 750 state- employed doctors in Zimbabwe, about half the minimum needed according to recent Health Ministry calculations.
The state says about 170 Cuban doctors have been recruited to fill vacancies left by Zimbabweans. The public health service is collapsing fast and in rural areas many clinics have no medicines.
Mr Mugabe, his wife, Grace, and a large retinue of officials left for Malaysia yesterday on what the state press said was an official visit.
The president has returned from previous trips to Kuala Lumpur claiming to have secured trade agreements, particularly for Zimbabwean agricultural exports. None can be fulfilled as Zimbabwean farming has been devastated by land seizures.
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No kidding....and Mugabe is stealing doctors from Cuba?
Oh well, intelligent people won't want to get the hell out of Zim?
The state says about 170 Cuban doctors [don't you just know these are first class doctors?] have been recruited to fill vacancies left by Zimbabweans. The public health service is collapsing fast and in rural areas many clinics have no medicines. Mr Mugabe, his wife, Grace, and a large retinue of officials left for Malaysia yesterday on what the state press said was an official visit.
I take back my previous statement; at least Mugabe and wife have the sense to get out of the hell they have created.
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