Zimbabwe To Employ Retired & Unemployed Nurses To Replace Striking Nurses

Health authorities in Zimbabwe will today start recruiting retired and unemployed nurses to fill 15,000 vacancies left after the government fired all nurses in state hospitals.

An advisory letter orders recruitment teams to be ready to start accepting new staff from Thursday. It also stipulated the number of nurses who should be hired.

Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, the former army chief, said that striking workers had refused to return to work despite their outstanding allowances being paid.

He said the decision to fire the nurses had been taken in the interest of saving patients’ lives.

But the nurses said they wanted to see the money in their accounts first.