The caregivers denounce a “draconian” law which establishes six months in prison for offenders while public hospitals are agony.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Zimbabwe officially published, Tuesday, January 10, a “draconian” law restricting the right to strike from health professionals and establishing a prison sentence, in a context of recurring protests to denounce too low wages and a system to agony.
The country of southern Africa has been plunged into a serious economic crisis for twenty years, marked by rampant inflation, a shortage of basic products and under-equipped hospitals.
In June, the sector organized a one -week strike to denounce the lack of paracetamol and bandages.
“brain leak”
The law, adopted at the end of November by the Parliament, prohibits doctors and nurses from continuing a strike beyond seventy hours, three days. The union representatives organizing demonstrations contrary to the new rules face a sentence of six months in prison.
The director of the Zimbabwean association of doctors for human rights (ZADHR), Calvin Fambirai, denounced to AFP a “draconian” law which risks aggravating “brain flight”.
More than 4,000 workers in the health sector resigned from public infrastructure in 2022, a significant number of them having gone to seek work abroad.