Zimbabwean health workers went on strike on Monday after rejecting a 100%
wage hike offer last week, pressing their demand for payment in U. S.
dollars as the local currency slumps. “The salaries that the health
workers received last week were pathetic,” Enock Dongo, head of the
Zimbabwe Nurses’ Association, told Reuters, adding that the majority were
paid 20,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($53) a month.
He said health professionals across the country had decided to strike until
they were paid US$540 a month, the pay they used to receive in 2018 before
the local currency slumped. Kindness Paradza, the deputy minister of
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, said the government was
trying to find “a positive solution” to the standoff, against a backdrop of
economic challenges faced by the country due to sanctions.