Luke Tamborinyoka, the spokesperson for the opposition MDC has likened the dismissal of striking doctors by the Zimbabwean government to the Biblical father in a parable by Jesus Christ who is said to have given his children stones and snakes when asked for bread and fish.
Tamborinyoka claims that workers’ demands, a living wage and improved working conditions, were genuine and any caring government should not have responded in the manner the Emmerson Mnangagwa regime did. He said:
So they gave their sons and daughters the stone (dismissal) for their legitimate demand of bread as symbolizing a living wage. And in line with the scriptural dictum, the regime spurned legitimate demands and instead gave our doctors a snake (dismissal) when all they had asked for was better working conditions and consumables to enable them to save lives.
His remarks come after the government fired 77 out of 80 striking doctors after they were “found guilty of not reporting for duty for no apparent reason”.
The doctors who are demanding a sustainable salary embarked on industrial action on the 3rd of September this year and are saying they will only return to work when their demands have been addressed in a satisfactory manner.
More: Nehanda Radio