A strike by junior resident doctors at Zimbabwe's state hospitals has widened just as increasing numbers of victims of post-election violence are pouring in seeking care.
The job action by the physicians started slowly last week but has intensified. Doctors charge that the government has failed to keep its word on transport benefits, failing to deliver cars which the government promised ahead of March 29 elections.
A representative of the doctors said Harare received a consignment of imported cars before the elections, but those vehicles have been given to senior consulting doctors and administrators rather than to the junior doctors who are now aggrieved.
VOA could not reach Health Minister David Parirenyatwa or another senior ministry official for comment on the grievance stated by the doctors.
Hospital Doctors Association Secretary Simbarashe Ndodha told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that while hospitals are now receiving a mounting number of trauma patients as a result of the surge in post-election violence, the government's failure to keep its word leaves his group no other choice.
