Zimbabwe Doctors on Strike After Alleged Abduction

Doctors go on strike in Harare, Zimbabwe, to protest the disappearance of their union’s leader. (Wikimedia Commons)

Doctors in Zimbabwe stopped working September 16 after the alleged abduction of Dr. Peter Magombeyi, leader of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA). Doctors protested outside the office of the president, shouting “bring back Peter” and “No Peter, no work.” The government of Zimbabwe sent military physicians to keep hospitals running.

Dr. Magombeyi disappeared Saturday night after claiming in a WhatsApp message that three unknown men were attempting to kidnap him. The ZHDA released a statement asserting that “Dr. Magombeyi was abducted by 3 men who we suspect to be State security agents… we demand to know where he is and his immediate release.”

As leader of the ZHDA, Dr. Magombeyi led Zimbabwe doctors in two strikes for higher pay and increased benefits over the past year, including a 40 day strike beginning last December and a protest this March.

Unrest has flared across Zimbabwe in recent months due to the country’s economic crisis. According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country Zimbabweans saw inflation jump to 175% this year. Water shortages, electricity blackouts, and spikes in fuel prices have added to the discontent. The World Food Programme, a UN agency, estimates that 7.5 million of the country’s 16 million inhabitants will face food shortages by the beginning of 2020. While doctors in Zimbabwe typically earn 100 USD a month, it can cost as much as 80 USD to fill a tank of petrol.

The doctors’ strike comes after protests and strikes broke out in August, in response to the shortages in Zimbabwe’s two largest cities, Harare and Bulawayo. The government responded with tear gas, batons, and on one occasion, opening fire.

President Mnangagwa’s administration has employed several controversial policies, including raising taxes and reintroducing the Zimbabwean dollar, to spur the economy. The Zimbabwean dollar suffered from hyperinflation as Zimbabwe’s sole currency in the early 2000’s, and the nation has used the United States dollar and a local currency backed by the US dollar as legal tender for years. While President Mnangagwa campaigned on securing foreign investment to pay for the country’s debts, international lenders have insisted on political reforms before making loans to Zimbabwe.

Dr. Magombeyi’s disappearance adds to a long list of alleged government abductions since the 2017 presidential elections, including political activists, trade unionists, and a comedian. While many of the victims have reappeared, several have suffered beatings and other mistreatments, allegedly at the hands of the government.

The striking doctors and ZHDA believe the Zimbabwean government is responsible for Dr. Magombeyi’s disappearance. Dr. Magombeyi claimed before September 14 that state security forces had warned him to stop his work with the ZHDA. According to the ZHDA statement, he received a text shortly before his abduction warning him “Carry on with the way you are acting and you will be abducted. We are close.” Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a nonprofit group unaffiliated with the ZHDA, filed an application with Zimbabwe’s high court to compel “whoever” is holding Dr. Magombeyi to release him.

Zimbabwe’s government has denied the kidnapping allegations. Secretary of Information Nick Mangwana claimed that “threats to the security of persons and acts of terror are ultimately threats to the security of the state. There is no rhyme or reason for the state to undermine itself.”

Government spokesman Kazembe Kazembe furtheradded that the state lacked evidence of Dr. Magombeyi’s abduction and would therefore consider his case a “disappearance.” Several government officials, including State Security minister Owen Ncube, have claimed that a “third force” may be involved in the abductions as an attempt to undermine the country’s image.