ZIMBABWE: Nurses go on strike over allowances

Nurses in Zimbabwe went on strike on Monday to press the government to pay them allowances and to protest a flawed system for grading salaries, a nurses union said. The strike left public hospitals understaffed and follows a month-long walkout by junior doctors that ended on April 2. The strike poses a problem for President […]

Nurses in Zimbabwe went on strike on Monday to press the government to pay them allowances and to protest a flawed system for grading salaries, a nurses union said.

The strike left public hospitals understaffed and follows a month-long walkout by junior doctors that ended on April 2.

The strike poses a problem for President Emmerson Mnangagwa who wants to revive a sluggish economy ahead of elections set for July in which he faces a revitalized opposition Movement for Democratic Change party led by 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa.

The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZNA), which has more than 16,000 members, said government negotiators had on Sunday tried to avert the strike by promising to pay arrears but nurses resolved to go on strike.

“They have been making promises for a long time and the nurses resolved to only go back to work when their money is in their accounts,” Enoch Dongo, the ZNA secretary general said.