Zimbabwean police arrested more than a dozen nurses and union representatives protesting on Monday outside a hospital in the capital Harare to demand wage increases, the country’s largest nurses’ union said.
The protests come as the southern African country faces its worst economic crisis in more than a decade and its beleaguered health system battles a surge in coronavirus cases.
“At least 13 of our members and union leaders were arrested during the demonstration at Harare hospital,” Enock Dongo, president of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association, told AFP.
“They are in police cells as we speak but we don’t know what charges they are facing,” he said, adding that the union was told the arrested would appear in court on Tuesday.
The union, which represents around 15,000 state nurses, last week called on members to strike over low pay at a time of galloping inflation. At the protest held by scores of nurses on Monday, the healthcare workers bemoaned the effects a low salary has on their quality of life.
