Vice-president says all strikers fired with immediate effect in interest ‘of saving lives’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Zimbabwe has fired thousands of nurses who went on strike to demand higher salaries, in a hardline response by the country’s leadership to growing labour unrest.

The vice-president, Constantino Chiwenga, sacked the nurses in a terse statement issued on Tuesday evening, in which he claimed their industrial action was politically motivated.

Patients were turned away from major hospitals after the nurses began their strike on Monday, shortly after doctors ended industrial action lasting several weeks earlier this month.

“Government has decided in the interest of patients and of saving lives to discharge all the striking nurses with immediate effect,” Chiwenga said.

He said unemployed and retired nurses would be hired to replace those fired.

Chiwenga was the military general who led the ousting of Robert Mugabe in November, when the army briefly took control of the country and ushered Emmerson Mnangagwa into the presidency.

He described the nurses’ strike as “deplorable and reprehensible” because the government had released £12m to increase their pay and allowances.

He said the funds would now be used to employ new nurses.

Zimbabwe’s nurses association said it noted Chiwenga’s statement, but the nurses remained on strike.

Mnangagwa has vowed to revive the country’s moribund economy and attract foreign investment to fund better public services.

“Government has done everything to comply with the demands of the striking nurses,” Mnangagwa said, according to state-owned media. “This leaves us with no option but to dismiss them.”

More than 90% of Zimbabwe’s budget is spent on government wages. Teachers at public schools have threatened to go on strike if their pay is not increased.

Zimbabwe is due to hold an election in July or August, the first since the fall of Mugabe, who had ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.

Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former deputy, is a veteran loyalist in the ruling Zanu-PF party.