Mozambique: Doctors still on strike, announce march through Maputo

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Mozambique: Doctors still on strike, announce march through Maputo

9:08 CAT | 03 Aug 2023

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), whose members have been on strike since July 10, aims to march in Maputo this Saturday on behalf of the conditions of diagnosis and treatment of patients, and will publicise their situation to international organisations.

“AMM informs the general public and the Government of Mozambique, in particular, that it will do everything, within the law, to ensure their rights and interests, reflected in the list of claims, are respected and satisfied,” the institution announces today in a statement.

“In such a way that on the 5th of August [Saturday] the AMM will carry out a walk through the arteries of the city of Maputo to call for the improvement of the conditions for the diagnosis and treatment of patients,” the statement, signed by the chairman of the AMM board of directors, Milton Ussene Tatia, adds.

The current strike period, initially lasting 21 days, started on July 10. Last Friday, the doctors decided in a general meeting to extend it for another 21 days, while the Mozambican executive said on Tuesday that professionals who miss work due to the stoppage will be held accountable.

“The government will not only continue to do its work with regard to the registration of absences to hold the absent doctors accountable, but has also been thinking about strategies to solve the problem,” Council of Ministers of Mozambique spokesman Filimao Suaze said.

At stake is the national strike in protest mainly against wage cuts and lack of payment for overtime.

“In the democratic rule of law and social justice state, as is Mozambique, the practice of conduct that aims to penalize or illegally limit the exercise of the fundamental rights and freedoms of state employees and agents without foundation is expressly prohibited,” the AMM says in its statement.

It adds that Mozambique “undertook several regional and international commitments regarding the promotion and protection of health with the consequent appreciation of doctors and development of the health sector”.

However, it criticizes the government for the “both intentional and negligent way in which it is destroying the National Health Service and marginalizing the medical profession”, which “gives licence to the AMM to address the relevant institutions in the health sector”, namely in the African Union and the United Nations.

“Due to the seriousness of the situation, the AMM also intends to carry out an evaluation of the successive governments’ performance in the health sector since independence and to award a prize for the worst government managing the sector in the country, thereby making room for the necessary investigations into the reasons that led to such destructive conduct, for the appropriate accountability actions,” the association pledges.

Prior to the release of this communiqué, the spokesman for the Council of Ministers on Tuesday announced that at least 60 new doctors would be hired within the scope of the strategy defined by the executive, reiterating that four points of a total of five claims raised by the medical profession had been satisfied.

READ: Mozambique: Striking doctors may lose their jobs – AIM

“We have to share that, of the five points that we had to satisfy throughout the month of July, four were overcome, with one remaining concerning overtime up until 2020, which, at this point, is almost 80% satisfied,” Suaze declared.

The AMM, on the other hand, states in its communique that the government “persists in disrespecting” the memoranda and agreements previously reached, denouncing the “violation of acquired wage rights, plus subsidies of various natures and other conditions for the medical profession’s work, with the minimum of dignity”.

The AMM insists that it “always undertook the commitment to guarantee the performance of the minimum services”, which “never failed to happen” during this stoppage, which is now in its third phase since the strike was called, with prior notice, on October 28, 2022.

Source: Lusa