Maputo — The governor of the central Mozambican province of Manica, Francisca Tomas, has called on the provincial authorities to take disciplinary action against all doctors in the province who have gone on strike, in obedience to the call from the Mozambique Medical Association (AMM).
Speaking on Thursday at an extraordinary meeting of the leadership of the provincial health directorate, Tomas said it made no sense for doctors, who had sworn an oath to treat the public with dignity, to instead abandon their patients in pursuit of demands which they are unable to explain.
"Did they train for seven or eight years in order to serve the public or to go on strike?', the Governor asked, cited by the independent television station STV.
Tomas claimed that doctors in Manica do not know why they are on strike. "There is no list of demands!', she exclaimed. "When we ask what they are demanding, they tell us to ask their superiors, because they are the ones who told them to make the claims'.
"People should only join strikes when they know what they are striking for!', exclaimed Tomas.
By "their superiors', Tomas presumably meant the AMM leadership in Maputo.
The AMM has certainly been very bad at public relations, unable to explain clearly what it wants. The Ministry of Health claims it has met all the strikers' demands except one concerning overtime pay, but it is hard to imagine doctors taking strike action for over a month because of a dispute concerning overtime.
Neither the AMM nor the Ministry has given firm information as to how many doctors are on strike, and what the effects have been.
The latest government statement was from Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo on Wednesday. In her capacity as the national election agent for the ruling Frelimo Party, she delivered the nomination papers for the party's municipal election candidates to the Maputo headquarters of the National Elections Commission (CNE), and reporters inevitably asked her about the strike.
"We are working with the doctors', she insisted. "When there are problems, the most important thing is to find solutions'. But she said nothing new - nothing to add to the Health Ministry's claim that 73 per cent of the strikers' demands have been met, and that the only outstanding point concerned overtime.
