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| Medics leader in court |
| Tuesday, 10 July 2012 22:35 |
| digg By Rosina John The Citizen Correspondent Dar es Salaam. A day after he was interrogated by police, the president of the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) was charged yesterday with inciting doctors to strike. He also stands accused of disobeying a lawful order. But a calm and collected Dr Namala Mkopi denied the charges and was released on bail. The strike has been on for almost three weeks and has paralysed services in public hospitals. State attorney Rumaini Kweka told Kisutu resident magistrate Faisal Kahamba that Dr Mkopi disobeyed a High Court order issued on June 26 requiring him to direct protesting doctors to call off their strike and return to work immediately.The same court issued a similar order on June 22, 2012, asking him to advise MAT members not to participate in the strike. The prosecution alleged that Dr Mkopi defied the court order and instead incited the medics to strike. But the medic shrugged off the two counts and, through lawyer Magango Isaya, asked to be released on bail. He was ordered to secure two reliable sureties to sign a Sh500,000 bond each. The state attorney asked the court to also order Dr Mkopi to surrender his travel documents to restrict him from travelling outside Dar es Salaam without the courts permission. The magistrate declined to do so, however, on the grounds that the court has powers to reduce bail conditions. On June 22, the High Court granted an application by the Attorney General asking that the countrywide doctors strike that was to start the next day be suspended pending a full hearing and determination of the governments application. This followed another application by the AG requesting the court to restrain MAT and its members from taking part in the strike until the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration heard the matter. If allowed to continue, he argued, the strike would have dire consequences, including the death of patients. The AG also argued that MAT announced the strike without following the procedure set out in the Employment and Labour Relation Act No 6 of 2004. The government maintains that it did enough to sort out the doctors demands while the medics insisted that their employer has done nothing substantial to address the concerns they raised. Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda told the Parliament in Dodoma last month that the government had reached a compromise with doctors on five of the eight key demandsincluding allowances for post-mortem examinations, on-call allowances and removal of some senior officials in the ministry of Health and Social Welfare. A few hours after the PMs statement, the doctors called a press conference in Dar es Salaam and denied knowledge of such an agreement. The strike took a new twist on June 25, when the High Court issued another order that the organisers announce in public that they would resume work. Judge S.C. Moshi warned the doctors to comply with an earlier order that restrained them from laying down their tools. The respondents are hereby warned that they should comply with court orders, said Judge Moshi, and the President of the Medical Association of Tanzania should address the compliance through the media. Two weeks later, President Jakaya Kikwete addressed the nation and warned that doctors who did not heed the call to end the strike were putting their jobs and future at risk. But the doctors stayed put despite the court injunction. Dr Mkopis court appearance comes three weeks after a key figure in a committee assigned to negotiate new terms of service and salaries with the government, Dr Stephen Ulimboka, was seriously injured after unidentified assailants kidnapped and beat him. He is being treated in South Africa. Dr Ulimboka was kidnapped as doctors were planning a second nationwide strike in response to the governments alleged failure to meet their demands. He suffered grievous injuries in the attack that left the nation stunned. Dr Mkopi has since complained that the associations leaders have been receiving death threats through short phone messages and phone calls through non-traceable numbers. |
