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Doctors’ strike: Heads must roll, says CUF
2005-06-25 07:53:14
By Guardian Correspondent
The Civic United Front (CUF) yesterday asked President Benjamin Mkapa to sack whoever made the decision to slash medical interns’ allowances.
CUF Chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba said the decision had not only belittled the medical profession, but had also caused thousands of Tanzanians 'untold' suffering after doctors at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) and other referral hospitals went on strike earlier this week.
'The government may have agreed to unconditionally reinstate the sacked interns, but the damage has already been done and this is why we want the President to sack whoever made the decision that precipitated the strike,' he said at a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Interns at MNH went on strike last weekend after the their monthly allowances were slashed from 206,000/-to 164,000/-.
Prof Lipumba said Tanzania was the only country in the world where the government lowered the pay of its employees instead of raising it.
'No government can think about lowering the pay of public servants even by a single cent. It can only happen in Tanzania,' he said.
The CUF chairman said even the 206,000/- monthly allowance that the government slashed on the grounds that it was cash-strapped was 'peanuts'.
Prof Lipumba added that intern doctors in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe were being paid the equivalent of 500,000/-, 530,000/- and Zimbabwe 700,000/- respectively.
He added that 'only' 75m/- was required to pay the 157 interns at MNH per year.
This is less than what the MNH managing director gets in three months.
So it’s not true that the government has no money to pay the interns, Lipumba said.
Meanwhile, another opposition party, Sauti ya Umma (Sau), said the government had made the right decision in reinstating the striking interns.
Sau said in a statement signed by Publicity Secretary Willy Mwangata that sacking the interns was not the solution and that the government was supposed to sit with them and find a way out of the impasse.
'Sacking them was a rash and ill-advised decision. It was akin to pouring petrol on an already raging fire,' the party said.
It added that there was no point in spending hundreds of millions of shillings in training experts only to sack them shortly after completing their courses.
(related story on Front Page)
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