ZIM’S SOFT GENOCIDE: LAW to ban all forms of industrial action by workers in the health sector after classifying them as an essential service, together with the police and military.

ZIMBABWE’S SOFT GENOCIDE: CABINET APPROVES LAW to ban all forms of industrial action by workers in the health sector after classifying them as an essential service, together with the police and military.
The current or latest strike, is the fourth strike under the new dispensation led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa who came into power 18 months ago in 2017 after the ‘coup not a coup’. Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the Cabinet, the executive arm of the State has approved principles of the Health Services Amendment Bill that were presented by Health minister Obadiah Moyo, a proposed law to effectively ban all forms of industrial action by workers in the health sector after classifying them as an essential service, together with the police and military.
“Highlights of the amendments include the following: To designate the Health Services Board (HSB) as a Health Service Commission, to provide for the functions of the Health Service Commission and its administration, to incorporate the basic values and principles governing the administration and financial management in the Act, to designate health service as an essential service and emergency critical care as essential services that should be provided for at all times,” she said.
Under the proposed law , health workers will just be allowed to picket at their employer’s offices for a few hours and not go on strike indefinitely.
Only 15 junior doctors out of 57 reported for duty at Bulawayo’s Mpilo Central Hospital.
Former Health minister Henry Madzorera, in a statement yesterday, urged government to urgently address doctors’ concerns to avoid unnecessary loss of lives.
“The illegitimate regime has unilaterally withdrawn the right to life and the right to health from the people both through its acts of commission and omission. The incapacitation of doctors nationwide is a serious infringement on the people’s constitutional right to healthcare,” he said.
Madzorera said the poor were the most affected by the doctors’ strike and shortage of drugs as top government officials always sought treatment abroad.
“Even the most basic medicines and supplies are always out of stock in spite of government’s incessant claims that stocks of medicines were on their way, while acutely haemorrhaging accident victims are being told to go and buy their own suture material and intravenous fluids at private pharmacies many kilometres away, before they can be helped,” he said.
“A soft genocide is looming if we don’t act now to avert the crisis. We further urge the regime to pro-actively address nurses’ and other health workers’ issues before further disaster strikes.” newsday, Sibusiso Ngwenya