Health workers tell Mutsvangwa to be sincere enough over brain drain

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Health workers have expressed disgruntlement over ZANU-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa’s claims that western countries are behind the massive brain drain hitting the health sector.

In an interview with 263Chat, Zimbabwe Professional Nurses Union(ZPNU) secretary-general Douglas Chikobvu said the government should come up with a raft of measures to lure health workers to remain in the country.

“This brain drain in our country is a broader manifestation of the socio-economic challenges that nurses and other frontliners are facing and failing to comprehend. These deep-seated challenges are born from measly, slave salary models being imposed on us as nurses,” said Chikobvu.

Chikobvu said the government has continued to pay salaries far below the poverty datum line and far below their regional counterparts.

“Nurses don’t live in a vacuum, they are now determined to search for a living wage to countries that offer better conditions of service, better tools of the trade, and a living wage. The government should come up with a raft of measures to lure their workforce to remain in their country by coming up with lucrativey packages, non-monetary incentives, better tools of the trade, and a living wage. Without this, the health sector will continue to experience a massive brain drain,” said Chikobvu.

Recently, ZANU-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa blamed western countries for causing a brain drain in the health sector saying that they lure Zimbabwe’s medical practitioners with better salaries.

“When a crisis comes, they come to recruit from Zimbabwe because we are relatively poorer than them as we were enslaved and not as rich as they are. We trained people, they then come and snatch them,” he said.

Mutsvangwa also expressed government’s commitment to improve the living and working conditions of health workers in the country. 263Chat

Activist Haruzivishe Decries Deplorable Prison Conditions

MDC Alliance activist Makomborero Haruzivishe has decried the deplorable conditions in the country’s prisons after spending more than 10 months 22 day in detention at Chikurubi and Harare Remand Prison.

Haruzivishe disclosed this during a press briefing saying overcrowding, lack of proper sanitation and other unacceptable conditions in jails reflected the true situation of the ordinary citizen.

“The D-Class where I was staying, I cannot blame the prison officials because they are also victims of this government. They are also underpaid and under resourced to discharge their duties. The D-class section has a maximum capacity of 300 inmates but when I left there were about 700 people staying cramped under this COVID-19 pandemic conditions. If you are to check the water system, it’s a nightmare to access water even the sewer system we were to live with it,” said Haruzivishe.

Whilst in prison, Haruzivishe claimed that an unknown individual tried to strangle him to death.

“We were in a cell at night, someone came and attacked me and was trying to strangle me but others (inmates) woke up and restrained him. He started pretending and acting as if he was insane. The danger is that if someone attacks or murders you, if they are mentally unstable they won’t be convicted. Surprisingly after a few days the man disappeared,” he said.

Haruzivishe who is facing a litany of charges at the courts was last Friday granted ZWL 20,000 bail on the last of his pending criminal cases where he is charged for kidnapping with intent to promote public violence.

The pro-democracy campaigner who was represented by constitutional law expert Professor Lovemore Madhuku said he would be campaigning for prisoners to be allowed to exercise their right to vote.

–263Chat