Billionaire pays Zimbabwean doctors to go back to work
Billionaire Strive Masiyiwa has agreed to pay the salaries of Zimbabwe’s doctors, ending a strike that has lasted more than four months.
Young doctors in Zimbabwe have agreed to return to work after accepting an offer from the Zimbabwean telecommunications billionaire. The strike, which was one of the longest in the country’s history, has brought an already struggling public health system to its knees.
The British company, Strive Masiyiwa, will pay each doctor a living allowance of around $300 and will provide them with transportation to work, using a fund he has created. Most striking doctors earned less than $ 100 a month.
The billionaire Strive Masiyiwa will pay doctors “out of his pocket” for six months but we do not know what will happen next. According to observers and the association of senior doctors, the strike would have led to the death of some people.
They even called it a “silent genocide”. Doctors went on strike to demand that wages be pegged to the US dollar to cushion ever-increasing inflation in the worst economic crisis Zimbabwe has ever experienced.
