A number of junior doctors are planning to break away from
the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) which they say has been
“captured” by foreign organisations.
Indications are that the splinter group will be launched
soon and will speed up negotiations with the Government to restore normalcy in
public health institutions where doctors have been on strike since September 3.
Sources close to the developments said want-away doctors
shared similar concerns with their colleagues in the ZHDA, but believed the
current leadership was now compromised and playing political games.
They said ZHDA appeared to have no intention of reaching an
agreement with the Government in the near future.
The association’s president Dr Peter Magombeyi, who claimed
to have been abducted by State security agents and was reportedly living in
South Africa, had also turned out to be a divisive force.
“Most doctors behind the scenes are getting frustrated by
the way things keep unfolding, so there is a group that has decided to lead
like minds into meaningful negotiations with the employer.
“This group believes that while the doctors’ concerns are
genuine, the leadership is also not sincere in these negotiations,” said a
junior doctor who is part of a steering interim committee.
The doctor, who declined to be named pending the conclusion
of certain processes, intimated that the group had the backing of some senior
doctors who wanted to bring finality to the crisis in the health sector.
He said the group would soon make itself known to the
public, paving way for commencement of genuine negotiations.
“The whole idea is premised on the belief that the current
leadership has been captured, which can easily be linked to their conduct in
the public sphere,” said the source.
“Magombeyi is living a lavish lifestyle in South Africa
while we have not been paid here for three months. We cannot continue to work
for other people.”
The possibility of the split emerged recently when the ZHDA
refused to take up a scholarship offer by Higher Life Foundation (HLF), which
included a monthly allowance of $5 000 for the next six months, a smart phone,
a Vaya car pool voucher to access hospitals for up to three trips per day and
free Wi-Fi at major teaching hospitals as well as equipment.
These incentives were meant to capacitate up to 2 000
junior and senior resident medical officers to report for work as they
completed their studies.
The HLF’s initiative coincided with President Mnangagwa’s
moratorium allowing all fired doctors to return to work without any conditions.
However, the ZHDA ignored the moratorium and rejected the
HLF scholarship arguing that both initiatives were not addressing their
immediate needs.
The ZHDA had previously exhibited traits of double
standards or capture when they agreed to signing a Collective Bargaining
Agreement (CBA) of 27 August 2019 reviewing all health workers’ basic salary by
50 to 76 percent on a sliding scale but later backtracked and disowned the
agreement before exiting the Health Apex Council.
A series of meetings held between the doctors and the
employer have so far failed to yield any positive results forcing Government to
seek legal recourse and to resort to mass dismissals.
All the dismissals were done in absentia as the doctors
refused to attend the disciplinary hearings. Meanwhile, junior and senior doctors yesterday handed over
a petition to Parliament with 12 demands around the review of their salaries
and improvement of working conditions.
They had walked from the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.
Led by Senior Hospital Doctors Association (SHDA) vice
president Dr Raphael Makota, the doctors wanted Parliament to insist on the
urgent revival of the public health sector, cause the enactment of a Health
Services Commission and the disbanding of HSB.
They asked Parliament to carry out a guided tour of public
health institutions. Herald
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