“Vice President Constantino Guvheya Nyikadzino Chiwenga has taken over the oversight role on the negotiations between government and striking doctors,” reported Bulawayo 24.
Most people would remember the bully-boy tactics Chiwenga used earlier this year to end the nurses’ strike - he fired the lot! He accused the opposition of being behind the strike and, as we all know, once Zanu PF has give you the opposition supporter tag you are “meat for vultures!” (Nyama yamagoro!), as one would say in Shona.
The junior doctors will probably be spared the MDC tag, for now, but will go away with little else. They will never ever be paid a living wage by this Zanu PF government not as long as the economic meltdown continues to get worse which is exactly what is happening.
There is no hope of any meaningful economic recovery whilst the country remains a pariah state rule by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. None!
It is not so much that government is broke; but that it is broke because corruption is rampant, amongst other reasons. A year ago Mnangagwa promised to end corruption, “there will be zero tolerance on corruption”, he said. Zimbabwe was “swindled $15 billion in diamond revenue” Mugabe admitted in 2016; confirming that corruption is indeed Zimbabwe’s greatest challenge!
And yet, surprisingly after a whole year in power, Mnangagwa has failed to arrest even one of these diamond swindlers. We know the mining has continued and so has the looting. It is not that the nation does not those who have been robbing the nations blind; everyone knows them from their amassed wealth.
VP Chiwenga has his C&M mansion, 45 gold watches, fleet of posh cars, farms, houses, business interests, etc.! It was not all paid for from his ZDF Commander’s salary, that is obvious.
President Mnangagwa is himself believed to be one of the richest individuals in Zimbabwe. He was one of the senior Zimbabwe leaders accused by the UN of looting DRC diamonds and gold. He has maintained a stone faced silence over the matter; the same stone faced silence that he has kept when confronted with evidence of his Gukurahundi murders.
What most Zimbabweans, these striking junior doctors, nurses and teachers amongst them, have failed to appreciate is that Zimbabwe’s economic recovery will never ever happen as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. In other words these junior doctors should have been out demanding that the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure the recent elections were free, fair and credible.
Now that we know Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 30 July 2018 elections; the junior doctors should not be demanding “a living wage and better conditions of services”. What is the point of asking for something that will never come; we have just forfeited all hope for meaningful economic recovery. Instead, they should be demanding that Zanu PF step down.
For the last 38 years the majority of Zimbabweans have failed to see this political and economic linkage, the few who did have ignored it, and the nation has paid dearly for it. The country is in this mess of economic meltdown and dysfunctional political system because for 38 years the nation has been stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime that rigged elections to stay in power.
Indeed, the economic meltdown is now so bad it has pushed unemployment to the nauseating height of 90%, most basic services such as health care and supply of clean running water have all but collapsed, etc. 75% of the country’s population now live on US$1.00 or less a day! There is a limit to how much more of these economic hardships the people of Zimbabwe can take.
We should be taking steps right now to stop Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown and not test providence by pushing the people’s economic hardship endurance to its limit. If we wait for the people’s bottled anger to finally burst, it will unleash a tsunami that will sweep away the Zanu PF dictatorship, but a lot more beside!
Zimbabwe is now standing right up on the very edge of the precipitous abyss. It is important that the nation stop dead and slowly move back.
VP Chiwenga and his fellow Zanu PF thugs are the root cause of the nation’s economic and political mess; whether they care to admit it or not, that is academic. What is of immediate concern right now, is that they step down; they rigged the recent elections and so they have no mandate to govern. They continued stay in power will only mean the economic meltdown will get worse and thus push the nation over the edge into the abyss.
Besides, even if the people were to bite their lower lip and endure the worsen economic meltdown as stoically as they can for the next five years; there is no reason to believe their suffering will end then. If Zanu PF is still in power in 2023, we can be 100% certain the regime will rig those elections just as readily as it rigged this year’s elections.
Zimbabweans have allowed Zanu PF rig elections and to stay in power in the hope that next time the regime will, out of some Damascene transformative experience, keep its promise to hold free, fair and credible elections. This has gone on for the last 38 years and Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections time and time again. After all these years of being disappointed, it is insane to try this futile course of action one more day especially with the nation’s very survival now at stake.
So, if these junior doctors had their thinking caps on, the only demand they would be asking of VP Chiwenga is for him and his fellow Zanu PF junta to step own. There is as much hope of Junior Doctors getting Zanu PF to step down as turkeys getting a Christmas break!
The junior doctors will probably be offered a 20% pay rise (to much what the Army got a few month ago) on their current pay of $384 per month! Paid in Bond Notes and not the US$ the doctors are demanding. Government will pretend the Bond Notes have held their value against the US$ at the official exchange rate of 1:1. We all know in the real world the exchange rate swung from 3:1 to as high as 10:1 to the US$.
In other words the junior doctors wages have dropped from US$ 384.00 to US$ 128.00 and then US$ 38.40 a month. The 20% increase will take their wages to US$153.60 and $46.08! At the height of the 2008 hyperinflation, junior doctors wages shrunk way below US$1.00 a month! Everyone knows those 500 billion per cent inflation rates and empty shop shelves days are here already, we have not yet hit the high notes but will do so soon enough!
No wonder the regime wants a ruthless enforcer like VP Chiwenga overseeing the salary negotiations; the junior doctors will remember what happened to the striking nurses and take their huge and bitter wage cut pill without further ado - orally or otherwise.
“Merry Christmas VP Chiwenga! You filthy animal!” He will not hear the latter; only flies with their ears to the ground will hear it!
6 comments:
“Indeed, the economic meltdown is now so bad it has pushed unemployment to the nauseating height of 90%, most basic services such as health care and supply of clean running water have all but collapsed, etc. 75% of the country's population now live on US$1.00 or less a day! There is a limit to how much more of these economic hardships the people of Zimbabwe can take,” you say.
You are much too kind my dear, the truth is our health care has COMPLETELY COLLAPSED! Our pompous VP Chiwenga was in hospital a few weeks ago for medical treatment and so too was Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo and so too were Grace Mugabe and her husband; they all sort their medical treatment outside Zimbabwe because they know they would not get it in Zimbabwe.
If the doctors are paid $46.08 a month, they are now living on US$1.53 a day that is not even enough for transport!
As for the hospitals themselves, there are is sorrowful state of rot and decay after decades of under funding.
People are tumbling over the edge into the abyss already many are dying because they not get their medicine or cannot afford it. If doctors are living on US$1.53 a day spending US$5.00 on medicine is certainly a luxury many cannot afford. Zimbabweans have learned to bury their died and say nothing and hence lay our weakness.
We know the health service has COMPLETELY COLLAPSED but pretend it is working. We know Zanu PF rigged the recent elections but, again, we pretend the regime is legitimate. We are right on the very edge of the abyss and many people are suffering and many are dying but, once again, we pretend not to notice.
I think the world has done its best to help Zimbabwe get out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF landed us but many out there are giving up. The world have given us their honest opinion on the elections, for example, the elections were rigged. We have all heard the verdict and witnessed the blatant vote rigging ourselves and yet we still pretend Zanu PF is the legitimate government.
Of course, we deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship and all the suffering and deaths it has brought! There is a lot worse coming. Hell is a bottomless pit, we are welcome to explore all its darkest chambers to our hearts’ content!
FORMER cabinet minister Saviour Kasukuwere, 48, who is facing several criminal offences intends to travel abroad for medical attention, a Harare Court heard on Wednesday.
Why not, all the other Zanu PF chefs are getting all their medical treatment outside Zimbabwe including VP Chiwenga and even President Mnangagwa himself. It is ironic that VP Chiwenga is right now haranguing junior doctors to accept wages of US$46.53 a month because the regime wants people to believe Zimbabwe still has a health care service!
A Senior House Officer -Anaesthetics Suleiman Makore on Friday took to social media to vent his frustration on the economic situation in the country vis-a-vis the salary that medical officers are being paid by government.
"Friends, please allow me to rant, my heart is overburdened. Today, we had a meeting with the deputy minister of health and our hope was that, as a colleague, we would have an honest discussion of issues related to our welfare as govt doctors." Makore said.
"Well my conclusion after that discussion is that they do not really care about us. Prices have gone up by at least 3 or even 4 times in the last few months yet my RTGS/Bond salary has remained static.”
Sorry to hear that Doc!
But are you and your fellow doctors not treating the symptoms and not the disease here? Even if government was to grant you guys 4 times your present salaries we both know it will not be long before the prices go up 4 times again.
Besides even if your salaries was increased 8 times, to give you some cushion, that will only be one aspect; government will need to increase its funding to hospitals 20 fold to stock your empty shelves and fix/replace broken equipment.
This government will never accomplish any of these thing not as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state governed by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. It is high time the people of Zimbabwe open their eyes and see that the bigger picture: that Zimbabwe’s economic recovery depends on the country doing something to cure itself of the curse of rigged elections.
Doc if you and your fellow doctors do not know that Zanu PF rigged the recent elections then Zimbabwe is going nowhere until you do!
The latest development comes after the Labour Court ruled against the industrial action by the health professionals and gave them a 12 hour ultimatum to return to work.
Armed with the court order the HSB has said it will not pay the striking doctors and medical staff for the time they absented themselves from work and will take remedial action against them.
In response, the ZHDA said its members will not return to work unless their concerns are addressed.
On the other hand government maintains it is hamstrung as Treasury is inundated with other obligations at a time the economy is not optimally performing.
Whilst the impasse continues it is the public which faces the brunt of the ongoing dispute.
This is worsened by the demand for US dollars for some medicines by some pharmacies.
It is hoped for the common good a lasting solution is reached.
“On the other hand government maintains it is hamstrung as Treasury is inundated with other obligations at a time the economy is not optimally performing,” said the article in one breath.
“It is hoped for the common good a lasting solution is reached,” it said in the next.
Only a Zanu PF propaganda media, ZBC, would write such nonsense and fail to see it is nonsensical. The author admits the regime is in no position to meet any of the doctors’ demands, not whilst “the economy is not optimally performing”. It is now slowing sinking into the regime and its apologists’ head that the economic meltdown is not going away.
Zanu PF must step down to allow the nation to get out of this pariah state trap; this is the only lasting solution on offer!
“Members of the Motlanthe Commission whose published Report is not up to scratch are laughing all the way to the bank. The Commission’s Chairperson is taking home at least a quarter of a million US dollars and Commissioners are pocketing at least USD 150K each for their botched job!”
“Pretty good wages for one little kiss!” Judas Iscariot would be saying to himself!
… Is it not true that members of the executives and ministers seek medical attention outside the country? If the hospitals are good, why are they not treated here? Is it not in the public domain that government is running around seeking medicines for the hospitals?
Very true!
Firing the doctors asking for a salary review after their wages have just been cut to 1/3 as the Bond Notes exchange rate of 3:1 to US$ would testify is an outrage.
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