The current strike by health workers in the country has proved once again that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has dismally failed to fulfil the promises he made to the electorate during the run-up to the 2018 elections, which include a robust and unparalleled health system that is second to none.
NewsDay Comment
Now the health workers have downed tools again — perhaps for the third time since Mnangagwa took over the presidency. The industrial action further confirms what we have always been saying that the current leadership is yet to master the art of statecraft and good governance.
The health workers are demanding salaries in United States dollars, which makes sense given the rate at which the local currency — introduced in violation of even kindergarten wisdom under the guise that it would facilitate an economic rebound — as the country had no back-up to support a stable local currency.
All those that gave wise counsel against the re-introduction of the local currency were branded sell-outs, but the economic carnage we have witnessed since then is second to none.
In this light, the job action by the health workers should be looked at in the context of the bigger picture of the economic mess in which the Zanu PF government has plunged us.
The truth of the matter, which they are too proud to accept, is that the local currency has failed and should be dumped on the scrapheap, where it belongs until such a time when our economy develops the capacity to support such a currency.
During the official United States-dollar era, we never witnessed the pricing madness that is now part of our everyday lives, where it no longer makes sense to use the local currency as the figures are not only forbidding, but unbelievable.
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What we have seen from the top echelons of power is blatant disregard for, and shocking insensitivity towards, the suffering of ordinary people, many of whom can no longer afford the very basics of life, never mind the luxuries.
There was a time when those in the medical field were among the best-paid professionals in view of the nature of their work of restoring the sick to health and fighting disease, but they have since been reduced to some kind of a laughing stock.
Surely, we thought our nation had turned the corner with all the promises about a “new era” and a “new dispensation” but sadly, we are simply moving in circles.
