Nurses at Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have vowed to continue protesting until the government agrees to pay them in United States dollars and releases their colleagues arrested for demanding better working conditions.
At least 12 nurses were arrested on Monday at a public hospital in the capital Harare while demanding to be paid in US dollars.
Like most other Zimbabwean workers, the nurses are demanding that the government pegs their salaries in the more stable American currency to cushion them against runaway inflation of nearly 800 percent.
The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) said it would not be intimidate into dropping its demands.
“As we have always stated, we have lost our earnings already through slave wages and so we have nothing more to lose,” ZINA said in a statement on Tuesday.
“For this reason, we call upon all nurses to remain resolute and continue the struggle.”
The union called for the immediate release of its members “who are being victimised by being arrested en masse”.
JN/APA