Zambia Union Nurses Organisation in Western Province has described Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda’s description of nurses as criminals as shameful because the action to continue with the strike was as a result of fake promises made by his office.
ZUNO Western Province organising secretary, Ronald Solami reminded Shamenda that his fake promises led to the dismissal of the nurses from the public service.
Solami said that the nurses merely responded to Shamenda’s failed promises to deal with their grievances among them, the demand for improved conditions of service and addressing the anomalies in salaries.
He said government’s decision to dismiss the nurses had increased pressure on the already understaffed and stressed health sector.
“We cannot be comfortable with our friends being fired because the Minister failed to deliver on his promises. Mind you he promised that he would put his head on the chopping board to ensure that the nurses got what they were bargaining for.
We are working under a lot of stress as a result of being overburdened. Our friends have been fired and they are living in the cold because they believed his (Shamenda) blackmail which he later turned round against them,” he said.
He was responding to recent media comments where Shamenda who is also a unionist, described the dismissed nurses as ‘criminals’.
Last week government announced the final dismissal of the health workers despite several calls to reinstate the nurses as the move had increased pressure on the already stressed health sector.
And Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) president Andrew Ntewewe said the move to fire the nurses was not done in national interest as this had increased pressure on the existing staff in health sector.
Ntewewe said it was unacceptable that the government could allow so much pain and anguish on innocent people just because a mistake was made by a few individuals.
“It is not true that lives have not been lost as a result of the action to fire those nurses, because the fact is that theatres were shut down and some services temporarily withdrawn, meaning people had nowhere to receive the service from.
In fact, this whole decision to fire the nurses does not help us as a nation, it makes us even poorer than we currently are,” he said.
Over 500 nurses countrywide were fired after the November 2013 strike action that had affected all the major hospitals’ operations including the closure of theatres and other services at the country’s largest health referral hospital, the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
His own name says it all Shamenda Shameless.
It’s not a straight forward case when you think a lot into it. I was once told by a doctor friend that doctors and nurses were most coldest at heart of people when it comes to death. They are completely detached to the event as it is just their line of work. It’s like working in a bakery and 3 loaves of bread are deformed so you have to bin them! People certainly died when the nurses were on strike and continue to die unnecessarily that is. We live in a civilised world and should understand that mistakes were made by both sides and the most reasonable thing to do is to offer these nurses their jobs back and dock 1 month salary from their pay cheque. This money should be used to build something at the hospitals affected be it fountains or a toilet to remind us all how we almost lost it.
#2,Can we make an appointment so that we go into the mortuary so that we help relatives of the deceased to locate their departed from the fridges.The burden of workload on the health workers is overwhelming.They are cold because they have to numb their feelings in order to cope with the insults,ridicule and threats from relatives and politicians.
The health workers work under deplorable conditions with no resources,and yet they are to blame for whatever happens to their relatives.When are we Zambians going to hold the government accountable for lack of proper care in the health facilities ?
People of Zambia, I repeat please people of Zambia, use your common sense when choosing people to vote for.
Can shamembwa be voted next time?
Can you vote for sata a hard hearted person in 2016 ?
I guess the answer is no.
Vote for HHHHH
Never for Sata again, worse HH because is tasteless.
If you look at it closely, the whole issue of firing the nurses is not really about the protest of the nurses, but this all about showing HH and the rest of the opposition that PF is in power. This decision came about because of HH’s involvement when he tried to speak for the nurses at the time. However, the conflict was began by the most himself when he promised them and later changed his mind.
Sorry wanted to say the conflict was began by the minister himself.
I just want to commend the good quality of comments by bloggers on this story. This is the way to go Zambians. Not those insults and below par comments we read from the habitual tribalists and kaponyas. Mind you the term kaponya does not only apply to the unschooled. Actually it applies to those who are uncultured, whether highly educated or not.
Shamende, is he one of the many useless PF MPs the president ws referring to? I believe he is. Wht a boss these guy hve. Ooh my foot!! I can’t work wth a boss who keeps on insulting hs juniors in public even privately, never!!
Nurses and Paramedicals! This is the start of bad and harshy things tto come coz u’ve failled to unite and fight for ur fellow fired nurses who’ve gone as sacrificial Lambs for all.
All unions representing health workers a quiet after that irrisponsible and careless statement coming from a minister who is there only to eat! A branch official so something wrong in that statement but all National leaders for ZUNO, CSAWUZ & HWUZ are quiet coz they are eating with both hands! Shame on u!
This shameless shamenda is not fit to run Labour ministry. He went to sleep the moment he took over from Kambwili. I wonder why he is still there…..there is so many mistreatments of Zambians going on in Private companies and he pretends he doesn t know. These foreigners even pass silly comment on the ministry officers and our government at large.
its so pathetic of him.
indeed very shameless fack…kekeke..shave him first..
NURSES ALSO AND THEIR UNIONS ARE TO BLAME, HOW DO YOU START SOMETHING WHICH YOU CAN NOT FINISH? SEE NOW THE TROUBLE YOU HAVE FIND YOUR SELF IN. SOME OF YOU NURSES YOUR BEHAVIOR WHILST ON DUTY IS VERY BAD TOWARDS PATIENTS HENCE SOME OF YOU DESERVES TO BE DISMISSED WITHOUT PENSION.