Nurses Sue VP Chiwenga, Say He Threatened Us With Violence

Nurses who were previously fired by Vice President, General Constantino Chiwenga (retired) for striking have asked the High Court to declare the decision null and void. The nurses also claim that instead of engaging them, the Vice President threatened them with violence. In a court application filed on Friday, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association said,

On April 17, 2018, we met with the respondents (Health Services Board, Health and Child Care minister Parirenyatwa, and Chiwenga) at the third respondent’s (Chiwenga) offices. Instead of engaging us, the third respondent threatened the leadership of the first applicant (Zina) with violence and ejected the first applicant’s president and secretary-general from the meeting.

. . . In terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the applicants have the right to be heard prior to an administrative decision affecting them being made…the third respondent is not the applicant’s employer. He is not party to the employment relationship between the applicants and the first respondent. He does not have the power at law to hire or fire nurses.

The matter is yet to be set down for hearing. The nurses have since called off the strike while the government has rehired all the nurses who were purportedly fired.

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