The Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ) has become aware, with the gravest of concern, of the alleged abduction of the Acting President of the Hospital Doctors’ Association and one of its registrants Dr Peter Magombeyi and issuance of threats and intimidation to some of the leadership members of the said Association in apparent relation to the ongoing collective job action underlined by financial incapacitation by hospital doctors to report for duty as per their mandate. MDPCZ is further aware that this comes on the backdrop of a spate of similar incidents befalling civil activists who have expressed similar grievances and ended up having extrajudicial incarceration and violence visited upon them. The MDPCZ wishes to place it on record that this can never resolve the problems bedeviling our nation, and in particular the very precarious health delivery system we find our nation relying upon for our very survival. It cannot be business as usual, and these predatory activities on citizens who in fairness have genuine grievances for both themselves and those they stated to serve must be brought to and end. The Constitution of Zimbabwe places an onerous duty on the state to protect its citizens, and citizens accept no less. MDPCZ therefore calls on the state and all the relevant security arms to ensure that Dr Peter Magombeyi is quickly found, his safety assured and he be reunited with his family. Suffice to say that Medical and Dental Professionals take these developments with an extremely dim and jaundiced view and cannot see how this can in any way advance the desperate health needs of Zimbabweans at large. MDPCZ clearly wants Dr Peter Magombeyi returned in good health, and the HDA’s grievances addressed in a civil, comprehensive and non-confrontational manner by all stakeholders in the interests of the good health of our nation.
Source: Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe
