Health workers have expressed disgruntlement over ZANU-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa’s claims that western countries are behind the massive brain drain hitting the health sector.
In an interview with 263Chat, Zimbabwe Professional Nurses Union(ZPNU) secretary-general Douglas Chikobvu said the government should come up with a raft of measures to lure health workers to remain in the country.
“This brain drain in our country is a broader manifestation of the socio-economic challenges that nurses and other frontliners are facing and failing to comprehend. These deep-seated challenges are born from measly, slave salary models being imposed on us as nurses,” said Chikobvu.
Chikobvu said the government has continued to pay salaries far below the poverty datum line and far below their regional counterparts.
“Nurses don’t live in a vacuum, they are now determined to search for a living wage to countries that offer better conditions of service, better tools of the trade, and a living wage. The government should come up with a raft of measures to lure their workforce to remain in their country by coming up with lucrative packages, non-monetary incentives, better tools of the trade, and a living wage. Without this, the health sector will continue to experience a massive brain drain,” said Chikobvu.
Recently, ZANU-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa blamed western countries for causing a brain drain in the health sector saying that they lure Zimbabwe’s medical practitioners with better salaries.
“When a crisis comes, they come to recruit from Zimbabwe because we are relatively poorer than them as we were enslaved and not as rich as they are. We trained people, they then come and snatch them,” he said.
Mutsvangwa also expressed government’s commitment to improve the living and working conditions of health workers in the country.
