PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has accused Zimbabwean doctors of being funded by the enemy to persist with their job action which is now into its fourth month.
He was speaking at the just ended Zanu PF annual national people’s conference held in Goromonzi over the weekend.
Zimbabwean doctors embarked on a job action September this year that has crippled health service delivery in the country’s hospitals causing massive devastation among locals who depend on the public institutions for treatment.
The defiant medical staff has stayed adamant it will not heed any orders to return to work if government does not give in to its demands for US dollars or local currency wages pegged against the US dollar interbank rate.
They have since refused a 100 percent wage hike by Treasury.
But President Mnangagwa sees all the conspiracies around the doctors’ refusal to return to work.
“…Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube at first offered them 30% increase and they refused, he doubled it to 60% and they refused, he went back again and offered them 100% and they still refused saying they were incapacitated,” he said.
Mnangagwa added, “They stay in hospital flats; they do not need any transport to go to work. Some we meet them in town, some even in South Africa but they refuse to walk 100 metres to go to work.
“We were then told that their leaders are being funded to make sure that health services collapse.
“I am glad that most of them are now seeing that they were being used and are coming back to work.
Mnangagwa said his administration was working to revamp the country’s ailing health delivery system.
“We are also revamping and modernising health delivery system to ensure universal health coverage.
“Under our programme, we have the construction of more health centres, availability of affordable drugs, and appropriate health personnel are being prioritised.”
