A funding offer by a billionaire Zimbabwe telecoms tycoon on Wednesday prompted the country’s doctors to consider ending a long-running strike over wage payments.
Doctors and the government have failed to agree on a wage increase since September last year, leading doctors to walk off the job.
Philanthropist and Econet Global owner Strive Masiyiwa has offered to pay the doctors a subsidy to cover living costs through his Higherlife Foundation.
“We have asked all our members to apply so we can go back to work and provide patients with the best service we can under the circumstances,” acting Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association secretary-general Tawanda Zvakada said.
Under the offer, doctors have until today to submit an application for the subsidy, which is to start on Saturday next week.
Junior doctors have been taking home the equivalent of less than US$200 a month. The subsidies would see them pocket an additional US$300 a month.
The strike, which started in September last year, has disrupted public healthcare services and the government has sacked more than 400 doctors for participating.
The stoppage is the latest in a series of protests in the health sector over the past few years, as workers struggle to make ends meet in the face of an entrenched economic crisis and soaring inflation.
Those who can afford it get treated at private hospitals, but many Zimbabweans have died due to a lack of medical attention.
Zimbabwe’s elite have for decades shunned local hospitals. Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe frequented a Singapore hospital for treatment, where he eventually died last September.
Last year, Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga spent months hospitalized in South Africa, India and China.
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