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OpenMafume: I Had To Convince Nurses Not To Strike
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said that he intervened to address concerns after council nurses threatened to strike over various welfare issues.
Mafume said this before the Harare Commission of Inquiry, led by retired Justice Maphios Cheda, which is investigating the operations of the Harare City Council since 2017.
In response to a question from Commission evidence leader Tapiwa Godzi about his involvement in collective bargaining meetings, Mafume said it was his responsibility to ensure that council operations continued smoothly, adding that the nurses had threatened to down tools. He said (via NewsDay):
We have 800 nurses and if I am unable to persuade them not to go on a go slow; we have got cholera, diarrhoea, and the rains are coming. I have to participate to persuade them not to go on strike.
Mafume said he attended the Municipal Medical Aid Association meetings after getting word that the scheme was being abused. He said:
We workers are not being paid, the medical aid is being rejected at hospitals.
Properties are being bought and their title deeds are not given to the council. Money is being paid twice. My workers are not getting treatment. And I went to ask what was happening with the medical aid.
I did attend because US$1 million had been stolen.
Mafume said the City of Harare employs close to 9,000 employees and has a monthly salary bill of about US$2 million. He added:
The moment we stop and we are unable to have harmonious labour relations with the employees, the trade unions, then all the functions of the council will grind to a halt.
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