The case in which Government was seeking determination on
the legality of doctors’ job action has been deferred to tomorrow to allow the
applicant to provide documents of proceedings that transpired before the Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare ministry, a top official has said.
This comes as the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) has suspended
some lecturers in the Medical School without pay and benefits for allegedly
influencing student doctors to engage in industrial action.
Director Civil Division in the Attorney-General’s Office
Mrs Fortune Chimbaru told The Herald yesterday that the striking doctors’ case
will now be heard tomorrow at 2.15pm.
“The case was postponed for us to file a record of
proceedings that transpired before the Minister (of Labour) leading to the minister
issuing a show cause order to the Labour Court,” said Mrs Chimbaru.
A show cause order is a court order requiring a party to
appear before a court to explain why a certain action should not be taken
against them.
A majority of junior and some senior doctors have continued
to defy Government’s directive to return to work citing financial
incapacitation.
The doctors stopped reporting for work on September 3 in a
bid to push Government to address their grievances. All efforts by Government have been in vain to bring
doctors back at work.
The doctors have rejected all offers tabled by Government,
the latest being a 60 percent increment on
allowances.
Meanwhile, the UZ has suspended some Medical School
lecturers without pay and benefits for allegedly influencing student doctors to
engage in industrial action.
The lecturers, who are also consultant practitioners at
Government hospitals, are Dr Bothwell Mbuvayesango and Dr David Chimuka.
“The university has good cause to believe that you
contravened the University of Zimbabwe code of conduct section 16, schedule D,
subsection 16.2
which reads: Any act of conduct or omission inconsistent
with the fulfilment of the express or implied conditions of his/her contract.”
Subsection 16.31, which is quoted on one of the suspension
letters signed by UZ Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Mapfumo, talks about
“inciting and/ or taking part in the unlawful collective job action or strike
by students or staff.”
The lecturers are set to appear before a staff disciplinary
hearing in due course.
Some senior doctors have since joined the junior doctors’
industrial action citing a number of challenges, which also include equipment
and medicines.
Last month, there was also a rumour that medical students
were planning to boycott graduation ceremony in solidarity with a missing Dr
Peter Magombeyi.
The plan was then shelved following Dr Magombeyi’s
reappearance in Nyabira but some of the suspended lecturers were also leading
“solidarity” demonstrations together with other health workers.
Dr Magombeyi is the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association
acting president who was allegedly abducted before he was “found” in Nyabira
and is presently in South Africa. Herald
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