Mozambique: Health workers announce second phase of strike

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Health workers announce second phase of strike

3:07 CAT | 29 Apr 2025

Photo: AIM

The Association of United Mozambican Health Professionals (APSUSM) has announced the new phase of its nationwide strike, which consists of a total stoppage of activities in all the country’s health units.

The first phase of the strike, which started last Thursday, consisted of suspension of hospital care outside of normal hours (from 07.30 to 15.30), as well as suspension of work on public holidays and weekends.

The APSUSM leadership had threatened to intensify the strike if the government remained incapable of solving the matters presented by the health workers. Now, the second phase will start as of Wednesday (30 April) until the government responds to the matters presented by the health workers during the dialogue held between the two parties.

“We are entering a phase called RSO, a mixing phase. In this mixing phase, all health units will be closed as from 15.30 on April 30. The struggle will not stop until the Government realizes the need to change the precarious conditions in health units. This is a pressure mechanism to ensure compliance with the agreements signed”, the APSUSM chairperson, Anselmo Muchave, told reporters on Monday.

Muchave demanded that the Government set dates for the start of compliance with the agreements “and to understand that we are now more determined.”

“This strike will start on 30 April until 5 May. This five-day strike is not synonymous with celebration, and we are not showing an iron fist, but rather demanding our rights”, he said.

“We hope the government understands the impact of the stoppage of activities on the lives of the population. The government must be serious. It should understand from now on that people enter a health unit and suffer from various diseases, but wait in long queues for care and die due to lack of medicine. Therefore, the government cannot minimize the impact of the strike, because these are people who need care,” he said.

Muchave responded to the arguments spread by the Government, claiming that not all health professionals are on strike, and considered them false.

“The government’s behavior does not surprise us, quite the opposite. It was expected that it would react this way, but it must realize that a closed hospital is not like a school, where the matter can be postponed to another day”, he said.

After the five day strike, he said, a new phase of the strike will be announced. “If the government does not respond, we will start the third phase of our strike”.

APSUSM says that the strike is aimed at putting pressure on the government to provide better working conditions, a reliable supply of medicines, and medical and surgical equipment, food for hospitalized patients, as well as more hospital beds to avoid overcrowding.

Neither APSUSM nor the Health Ministry have produced any figures for how many workers are on strike, or how many health units are affected.

Source: AIM