Some Zimbabwean doctors back at work, union says
HARARE, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Some of Zimbabwe's striking state doctors have returned to work on humanitarian grounds but most are still holding out for higher pay, the head of the doctors' union said on Thursday.
Amon Siveregi, president of the Zimbabwe's Hospital Doctors Association, told Reuters the industrial action had not been called off, contrary to reports in the state media.
"We have not called it off," Siveregi said. "Negotiations with the ministry continue, and while it's true that some doctors are turning up for work on humanitarian grounds, that doesn't mean the strike is over."
Strikes by government doctors and nurses have become a frequent occurrence as their salaries have been eroded by the world's highest inflation rate -- officially put at about 8,000 percent, although analysts say the figure could be double that.
When the doctors' strike began in late December, President Robert Mugabe's government brought in army medical personnel to deal with serious cases, while other patients were turned away.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper on Thursday reported that most doctors had returned to work after the government approved loans worth Z$100 million ($3,333 at the official exchange rate but $50 on the widely used parallel market) for all state employees, including health workers.
Health Ministry officials were not immediately available to comment.
Staff at private clinics have not joined the strike, but most Zimbabweans receive medical care through state hospitals and clinics.
Zimbabwe continues to lose thousands of health workers who abandon the country in search of better-paid jobs in South Africa, Britain and Australia, hitting a sector already burdened by shortages of drugs and the effects of HIV and AIDS.
Economic analysts have said Zimbabwe is likely to see more strikes in 2008 by dissatisfied workers grappling with an economic recession marked by soaring inflation, shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel, and rising unemployment.
Mugabe, 83 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies accusation of mismanaging the economy and says it has been sabotaged by Western countries as punishment for his seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks. (Reporting by Nelson Banya; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
