Employ 300 nurses, activist pleads with Malawi govt

Firebrand nurses activist Dorothy Ngoma is pleading with the government to take back 339 nurses it fired after the High Court of Malawi told a nurses organisation and government go back to mediation.

Ngoma, executive director of National Organisation of Nurses in Malawi (NONM) said since the mediation was completed, the government is delaying in taking back the nurses who hit headlines last year after the government fired them enmasse soon after giving them appointment letters.

Government cited lack of money as the major reason to offload them even before they were loaded on government payroll.

“We have been to court, the court sent us back for mediation. The government lawyers and our lawyers have been engaged in talks, they all agree that what the government did was wrong,” said Ngoma.

She said now that the Health Commission is in place, it should conduct interviews for the recruitment of the nurses.

“We are concerned that the process has stalled, we are unhappy,” she said.

The issue of the nurses caused a storm last year as there were demonstrations to force the cash strapped government employ them.