The University of Zimbabwe recently suspended and later
reinstated two senior consultants from the College of Health Sciences in what
observers labelled a “circus”. The two consultants, well- known paediatric
surgeon Mr Bothwell Mbuvayesango and cadiac specialist Dr David Chimuka, were
accused of breaching their UZ contract of employment resulting in the initial
action taken by the university against the two. Mr Mbuwayesango was suspended
without pay and benefits pending investigations while Dr Chimuka’s contract was
terminated, moves that irked fellow lecturers from the medical school resulting
in them indicating their intention to collectively withdraw labour, demanding
reinstatement of the two. Senior Health Reporter Paidamoyo Chipunza (PC)
interviewed UZ Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Mapfumo (PM) on this and other
issues.
PC: Prof Mapfumo, the UZ reinstated two senior consultants
it had suspended for barely 24 hours. Can you shed more light on circumstances
surrounding the two decisions?
PM: Yes, it is true, that is what happened. But the initial
decision was part of our internal monitoring of how our staff discharge their
duties. So if we pick up things that require our action to correct them, we
then take such action and in this case, we thought there was a breach related
to how the doctors were fulfilling their contractual obligations with the
university. I am, however, not at liberty to discuss this supposed breach in
public because it has to do with someone’s contract but it’s really issues to
do with whether they compromise the deliverables that we expect in their
discharge of duty.
PC: So what then came out to the public is that these two
doctors were accused of inciting mass job demonstrations in the health sector.
What is the university’s policy regarding involvement or implication of its
staff in such actions?
PM: Putting that into context, UZ lecturers are not on
strike, so we expect them to deliver their duties normally. I want to decouple
what is happening in the broader health sector and what the UZ consultants are
expected to do. They can offer their services elsewhere in private practice, in
public hospitals but that is a different contract they can have. They should
not compromise their core obligation in terms of contract to deliver what UZ
expects from them.
PC: Having said that, further accusations against UZ are
that you then victimised these two for their involvement in a contract that
does not involve the university. How do you respond?
PM: We want to decouple that and say the “power action”, as
it came out in the media, was not about victimisation. There was no
victimisation. Yes, we are a university and we also have to watch what is
happening in the country and that is how we get involved to also help on how we
solve some of the key challenges facing the nation, so we cannot also disassociate
ourselves from what is happening but the point on decoupling is really on
contractual obligations.
We are not saying we are penalising a member because they
did whatever elsewhere, we are saying don’t compromise the delivery of services
in the university on the basis of what is happening elsewhere when you have a
duty here. More so when here we are not in quarrel.
PC: If that was your position, why then did you reinstate
the two barely 24 hours from suspension and termination of contract. Can one
say your initial decision was ill informed?
PM: No, it wasn’t ill informed. Following their suspension,
the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZiMA) requested for dialogue, which we then
had on Wednesday. They made their submissions and I also had my submissions and
our position as a university was to say we do not want this connectivity
because your contract is different with the contract you might be having
elsewhere.
ZiMA also argued that the medical field was interconnected
at the same time they were also revealing to us information that they thought
we didn’t have, which could help in our determination. We also looked at the
implications of our decision considering the atmosphere and our role is really
not to add fuel to what is happening but to help in finding solutions to those
problems. So we did not take away the fact that UZ correctly followed its due
processes but we then became conscious of the wider environmental issues.
PC: Others believe the way things unfolded in those two
days was more of a circus, how do you respond?
PM: It might look so but it’s not. Remember part of what we
have to do as a university is to be responsive and dynamic to what is happening
on the ground. Yes, UZ absorbs that pressure and those kind of perceptions from
the public but I honestly applied my mind to all the decisions. We are here to
make decisions.
Yes, there could be variations to a decision but I was not
there to demonstrate that I can fire them, no, that wasn’t about that because
we were not fighting anyone and the fact that there was a mediator, we also had
to open up to their concerns and that is exactly what we then did. In fact, the
reversal was culmination of a huge process that started early in the morning
before 8am until 8pm. So no, it wasn’t a circus but it was actually a result of
deliberations that had taken place the whole day.
PC: So following those deliberations, can one safely say no
interruption of lessons then occurred as had been hinted before by lecturers
from the medical school?
PM: I haven’t heard anything to the contrary of what we
discussed with ZiMA, the whole Department of Surgery and the two concerned
senior consultants. I want to believe lessons are proceeding as usual.
PC: Let us talk about junior doctors. At some point there
were propositions that they should be treated as students since they will still
be on internship. How far have those discussions gone according to your
knowledge?
PM: The university signs off junior doctors after
completion of their five years. This is when they are then transferred to the
Ministry of Health and Child Care from the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education.
So the two ministries are still discussing on when this handover-takeover
should happen but we are also looking at our internal regulations as a
university.
PC: So, who funds the education of junior doctors because
some of the perceptions out there are that doctors’ studies are funded by
taxpayers’ money?
PM: I would say it’s a mixture really because the system
that is there is that they are still students, even when they are being hosted
in another ministry where they are then paid salaries from the taxpayers’
money. So they are removed from a place where they are paying school fees to
where they are actually being paid in the last part of their training, which is
why the two ministries are talking.
PC: Talking of school fees payment, how has been the uptake
of the recently introduced student grants for financially disadvantaged
students?
PM: We are still working on the modalities on how to
channel them before we assess the uptake. We have other institutions that have
come to offer loans before. so we know uptake has been low because of certain
things. So we are working on the framework of giving out these loans so that
uptake is high while ensuring that it remains a revolving fund. So as UZ, students
have not yet started accessing the loans.
PC: On other issues, what is the update regarding the UZ’s
industrial park?
PM: We are accelerating establishment of the industrial
park with the thrust that we want to have more and more focus in building capacities
to produce. We have developed modules that will look at critical areas such
pharmaceuticals, electronic equipment, food processing, engineering and value
addition of agricultural products. Those that excel in concerned faculties will
then go to the industrial park for further development of their innovations. We
are hoping to start advertising for those programmes in February 2020 for
possible enrolment in August in line with the Education 5.0 model.
PC: As we conclude our discussion, you might want to talk
about some of the challenges the university is facing in its day-to-day
operations?
PM: The current economic situation has not spared the
university. We are faced with rising costs of almost everything yet we have not
increased our tuition fees, making it difficult to cope. We are, however,
trying to ensure that our agro side of the industrial park increases
productivity and that has helped us to a greater extent.
Issues of water availability have also been of concern to
the university. We do not have council water, we rely on borehole water but
because the water table has gone down everywhere, we are also beginning to feel
the pinch. So we are trying to draw water from our industrial park, which is a
distance of about 10 kilometres to the campus reservoir. We, therefore, appeal
to the corporate world to assist us in making this dream possible. Herald
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