Maputo — The Mozambican Association of United Health Workers (APSUSM) on Monday threatened to bring the health service to collapse, unless the government agrees to pay them their end-of-year bonus.

This traditional bonus is equivalent to an extra month's payment of the basic wage, and so is commonly known as "the 13th month'.

At a Monday press conference in Maputo, APSUSM leader Anselmo Muchave, cited by the independent daily "O Pais', demanded payment of the bonus within 15 days, otherwise the entire system would shut down.

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"If the government does not pay the 13th month in full to health workers, all the health units in Mozambique will close', Muchave said. He claimed that the workers are legally entitled to the bonus. "It is not negotiable, and it is not a favour', he declared.

"Failure to pay the 13th month will have serious and immediate consequences on the lives of health workers, and hence on the operations of health units throughout the country', he threatened.

Muchave said that hospitals, health centres and other services "will inevitably be in a situation of operational chaos, putting at risk the continuity and quality of the services provided to the public'.

Muchave made a wild claim of mass deaths in the health units over the past year "worse than the massacres in Cabo Delgado' - referring to the islamist terrorism affecting that province.

In fact, there have been no credible reports of unusual numbers of deaths in any health unit.

APSUSM has regularly threatened strike action, but often the threatened strikes have not occurred. APSUSM claims that it represents 65,000 health professionals, but nowhere near this number of people have answered its earlier strike calls.

So far, the Health Ministry has not responded to Muchave.