Brain drain continues to haunt Zim as close to 36,000 are granted work visas to the UK alone in just a year

on December 14, 2024 in Health and Wellbeing, News

Low salaries and poor working conditions are driving Zimbabwean healthcare workers to emigrate

ZIMBABWE continues to lose its skilled manpower to other countries as 35 938 skilled workers, mostly in the Health sector migrated to the United Kingdom in just a year.

Read more: Brain drain continues to haunt Zim as close to 36,000 are granted work visas to the UK alone in just a year

Although reasons for emigrating to other countries vary, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe this week said between June 2023 and June this year, close to 36,000 Zimbabweans had been granted working visas by the UK mostly as health care workers.

Locally, healthcare workers earn an average of US$255 per month while the least experienced stands to take home about US$2,500 in the UK.

Thousands more have left en-masse to Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand where the working and living conditions are better.

Kazembe said that the country had not been spared from the devastating effects of brain drain as nurses and doctors have emigrated from Zimbabwe en-masse.

“Statistics from the United Kingdom revealed that between June 2023 and June 2024, 35 938 Zimbabweans were granted work visas to the UK, mostly as health care workers.

“It may be a challenge to tame this emigration pattern as reasons for such vary,” Kazembe told International Organisation for Migration  (IOM) director general Amy Pope, the first IOM DG to visit Zimbabwe in several decades this week.

Zimbabwe’s health sector is mismanaged and this has been worsened by the country’s economic collapse.

Zimbabwe is on WHO’s red list of countries with dire health service shortages.

“However, it is equally possible to replenish lost and or required skills through sound policies,” added the minister.

SOURCE: NewZimbabwe via link https://www.newzimbabwe.com/brain-drain-continues-to-haunt-zimbabwe-as-close-to-36000-are-granted-work-visas-to-the-uk-alone-in-just-a-year/

US$30,8m collected from sugar tax: Govt

on December 14, 2024 in Health and Wellbeing, News

Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion permanent secretary George Guvamatanga (left) sits next to his boss, FinMin Mthuli Ncube

GOVERNMENT says it has collected US$30,8 million from the special surtax on sugar content in beverages since the gazetting of Statutory Instrument 16 of 2024, the Customs and Excise (Tariff) (Amendment) Notice, 2024 (No 5) on February 9, 2024, to date.

Read more: US$30,8m collected from sugar tax: Govt

Responding to the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights through their lawyers Kantor & Immerman in a letter dated December 13, 2024, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion permanent secretary George Guvamatanga said: “I refer to the above captioned and specifically your letter of November 25, 2024 in that regard.

“You requested for information regarding the amount of the that has been collected from the date of gazetting of the Customs and Excise (Tariff) (Amendment) Notice, 2024 published in Statutory Instrument 16 of 2024 and an account of what cancer drugs and equipment have been procured to date and to which hospitals these have been distributed. Please note my response hereof.

“Thirty million eight hundred thousand United States dollars (US$30,8 million) of special surtax on sugar content in beverages has been collected as of November 2024.”

Guvamatanga’s response came after the human rights doctors last month wrote to government demanding information on how much money had been collected from the special surtax on sugar content in beverages and if it has been used for the intended purposes.

The doctors said they were requesting the information in terms of section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 10:33].

On what the money had been used for, Guvamatanga responded: “The procurement of drugs and medical equipment is under the purview of the Health and Child Care ministry. Hence, the Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion ministry is not the competent authority to give you information on your second request.”

In the 2024 national budget, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube last November proposed tax on high sugar content beverages, saying the revenue generated would go towards the creation of a cancer fund.

SOURCE:: NewsDay via link https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200036235/us308m-collected-from-sugar-tax-govt