Doctors "Not Intimidated By Threats", Carry On With Strike

Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), a union for junior and middle-level doctors has said that doctors will continue with the industrial action despite threats from the government.

Speaking to the Daily News on Friday 18 October, the association said:

ZHDA members remain incapacitated and threatening doctors will not solve this crisis. It actually exacerbates the situation.

We remain open for negotiations with a neutral, well-recognised mediator with the employer on a separate platform and are willing to go back to work once an assuring and sustainable solution is found on fair and faithful grounds.

The remarks come after President Emmerson Mnangagwa issued a chilling warning to striking doctors saying that they will later regret their decisions.

He said that doctors must return to work and negotiate for their salaries whilst assisting patients who are reportedly dying in public hospitals as no one is attending to them.

Meanwhile, the Health Services Board yesterday issued a statement suggesting that the doctors and government had agreed to a 100% salary increment, a development which the ZHDA said it was not aware of since it pulled out of the Health Apex Council.

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