Zimbabwe: ZCTU Backs Nurses' Strike, Urges Govt to Urgently Address Grievances

The government says it will institute a salary adjustment effective April 1, 2026, based on a new remuneration framework informed by a recent job evaluation exercise.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has urged striking nurses to press ahead with their demands for salary increments until the government addresses their grievances.

Nurses on Thursday announced that they will down tools from April 15 to April 17, citing poor remuneration and deteriorating working conditions. They said authorities had been given ample time to resolve their concerns without success.

The planned strike follows recent demonstrations at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital and Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. Nurses in districts including Gweru, Kwekwe, and Zvishavane also issued a 48-hour ultimatum on March 23.

The health workers say rising fuel prices, driven by tensions in the Middle East, have worsened the cost of living, leaving their salaries and allowances inadequate to cover basic expenses such as transport. Some nurses have reportedly been forced to walk long distances to work.

In a statement, ZCTU Secretary-General Tirivanhu Marimo said the labour body fully supports the nurses' job action.

"We urge the nurses to be steadfast in their demands. The fight for the safety and dignity that nurses and their patients must be unrelenting until sanity is restored in the public health sector," Marimo said.

"The ZCTU reiterate that decent work is not a privilege. It is not a secret that health sector workers are poorly remunerated and to cut some of their allowances is callous. The sector is collapsing simply because it is not being prioritised by central government."

ZCTU called on authorities to urgently address the concerns raised by healthcare workers to avert further disruption in the public health sector.

"It is embarrassing that the nurses have downed tools on the heels of remarks by the Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Deputy Minister Kudakwashe Mnangagwa, that the lowest-paid civil servants now earns above the Poverty Datum Line and that government salaries have become competitive," he said.

He added that government must urgently address the welfare of all civil servants to improve service delivery, rather than waiting for workers to resort to industrial action.

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