Mozambique: Administrative Tribunal wants tax and customs courts in all provinces
Mozambique: Health workers threaten to intensify strike
4:23 CAT | 22 Apr 2025
FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File potto: AIM]
The Association of United Mozambican Health Professionals (APSUSM) has threatened to intensify its nationwide strike if the government continues to ignore the matters presented by the health workers during the dialogue held between the two parties.
The strike, which started last Thursday, initially to last for 30 days, consists 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.
However, the APSUSM leadership is threatening to intensify the strike, if the government remains incapable of solving the matters presented by the health workers.
According to the APSUSM chairperson, Anselmo Muchave, who was speaking to reporters on Monday in Maputo, “within this week, if the government doesn’t finalize the agreements with us, we’ll be forced to make the strike even worse.”
He claimed that some health workers who are APSUSM members have been calling for total interruption of work, “but then they decided to give the government another chance.”
“The government can’t go around saying that our complaints are very strange. The new head of state [President Daniel Chapo] should be a little ashamed of himself when he asks why the health professionals are insisting on going on strike, since he knows that we submitted the request for dialogue in January. After he took office, we weren’t listened to, so in February we submitted other documents. Now it’s April and nothing”, Muchave said.
According to Muchave, the government should recognize the work carried out by health professionals during the mass demonstrations called by the former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane in order to protest against the allegedly fraudulent results of the elections held last October.
He explained that during this period, in which many protesters were targeted by police gunshots, the health workers played a very relevant role “extracting bullets from the patients’ bodies and dealing with blood. No thanks from the government appeared for the health professionals. That is why we say that we must not be treated as slaves in our our own country.
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 Ministry of Health have given any figures on how many health workers have joined the strike.
Source: AIM
Show comments
Also read
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.