SA doctors plead for ‘missing’ Zim medic to be found

Amid fears that Zimbabwean Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) leader Dr Peter Magombeyi, who has gone missing, could have been abducted by that country’s state security forces, the South African Medical Association (Sama) has made an impassioned plea to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to “help find him wherever he is held”.

Sama’s appeal comes in the wake of a high court order, obtained by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), for any state agency holding Magombeyi to release him.

Magombeyi, who was behind the protest by doctors for “a living wage” in the Zimbabwean public service, has not been seen since he sent a WhatsApp message last weekend, saying he had been “kidnapped by three men”.

Zimbabwean doctors, who earn about R3,000 a month, have been on strike for better wages, equipment and medicines in state hospitals.

“Missing and feared abducted,” reads the poster bearing Magombeyi’s photograph being circulated by the ZLHR, deepening a concerted campaign to find him.

Sama chairperson Dr Angelique Coetzee said the organisation condemned the disappearance of Magombeyi “in the strongest terms”.

“We are making a plea to the government of Zimbabwe to ensure that he is released, if government security forces are involved in the abduction.

“From a human rights point of view, this is not acceptable because there are few medical practitioners in Zimbabwe,” said Coetzee.

Anyone who abducted a doctor “for standing up to his or her rights, is an accessory to muzzling a right to free speech and to freely speaking out against that which is not the norm”.

She said: “The Zimbabwean government should be bold enough to say they have abducted or arrested Dr Magombeyi.

“This is [not] good for the people of Zimbabwe or the medical profession, a troubling development that has affected staff morale.”

Coetzee said Magombeyi’s suspicious disappearance had left “a void which no other person can fill in terms of bringing the critical medical services to the people”.

The ZHDA has accused state security forces of abducting the doctor because of his role in organising work stoppages.

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa, David Hamadziripi, is currently in Zimbabwe and was not available for comment on charges that Magombeyi could be in the custody of state security forces.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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