BONU, MOH fight reaches Parliament

The two health stakeholders have been at each other’s throats for many issues but then made up. The “call to duty” debacle has dragged on for several years with both parties having a fair share of court victories until a Court of Appeal (CoA) judgment that left them still in disagreement on how to proceed. The war escalated through recent exchanges over press statements.

BONU earlier this week expressed “deepest dismay and concern over the misleading response” given by Minister of Health, Dr Stephen Modise, regarding the issue of unpaid standby allowances for nurses and midwives. The union is of the view that the minister’s statement made in Parliament misrepresented the facts and failed to acknowledge the unfair treatment of nurses compared to other health cadres. During a recent parliamentary session, legislator for Kanye West Victor Phologolo had asked the minister whether he was aware that nurses and midwives across all public health facilities work on standby without receiving a standby allowance, while other cadres are compensated.