Maputo — The Mozambican police on Tuesday dispersed a group of doctors who were providing health care free of charge under tents erected on a municipal field in the outer Maputo neighbourhood of Zimpeto.
The doctors concerned are members of the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), who are currently on strike.
The strikers claim that they are providing minimum services in the public hospitals, but they decided that they would also assist citizens by holding a "health fair' in Zimpeto.
The doctors were allowed to do their jobs for about two hours - and then the police arrived and told them they had no authorization from the Maputo Municipal Council to use the Zimpeto field. Units of both the national police force (PRM) and of the municipal police came to the field to disperse, not only the doctors, but also their patients, including those who wished to donate blood.
One man, Luis Bernardo, interviewed by the independent television station STV, said he had wanted to give blood, but the police stopped him. "I came here, I began to take some tests, and I wanted to donate blood, but I couldn't because the police interrupted us', he said.
The AMM says it did indeed apply for, and receive authorization from the Municipal Council. AMM spokesperson Napoleao Viola told STV that the AMM had submitted its request the previous week to the municipal health portfolio.
Not only was the request accepted, but the Council even allowed the AMM to borrow some municipal furniture such as tables and chairs.
"Unfortunately there is some dissonance between the municipal portfolio that deals with health matters, and other levels, and we don't know what those levels are', said Viola.
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The police interference went so far as to instruct the doctors to remove their T-shirts, which bore the words "I am on strike in order to improve the national health service'.
The police have no authority whatsoever to tell citizens what items of clothing they may or may not wear. There is no law which determines the slogans that may appear on T-shirts.
This is not the first time the police have ordered protestors to remove T-shirts they did not like. Some years ago, the police confiscated T-shirts issued by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) that declared "I am not paying for hidden debts' (a reference to the country's largest ever financial scandal).
The AMM members obeyed the illegal police instruction and removed their T-shirts.
