via Suspended doctors to launch legal battle – NewsDay Zimbabwe February 10, 2016
The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association (ZHDA) has vowed to challenge a decision by the Health Services Board (HSB) to suspend its executive members for three months without salaries.
BY SILENCE CHARUMBIRA
The doctors were accused of inciting fellow medical practitioners to go on strike and suspended pending disciplinary hearings.
ZHDA president Fortune Nyamande, his deputy Hugh Manyere, secretary-general Farai Makoni and Rusununguko Kanyongo will only resume duties on May 4 when their case is expected to have been finalised.
Nyamande yesterday said they had engaged lawyers to challenge the decision.
“We are definitely going to court. We are still looking at the merits and demerits of our case, so that we can challenge the legality of the suspension,” he said.
“We believe the suspensions were done outside the confines of the law.”
HSB chairperson Lovemore Mbengeranwa alleged the four doctors were inciting other medical practitioners to go on strike.
He said ZHDA has been violating professional regulations by, among others, mobilising fellow members to strike when they were not allowed to go on industrial action.
Mbengeranwa said health workers were not allowed to strike because their service was classified as essential.
Asked if the decision was not meant to silence the disgruntled doctors who always allege that some of the HSB members were corrupt, Mbengeranwa said: “The intention is not to silence them. They will have a hearing where they will have a chance to prove their allegations.”
He said some of the issues being raised by the doctors were personal attacks and accused ZHDA of not following due processes.
Among the accusations the board made against the doctors, was refusal to retract a statement calling for the dissolution of the HSB alleging that it was failing to address the plight of its constituency.
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