HARARE – The cash-strapped Zimbabwe government has indefinitely suspended the recruitment of nursing students.
The secretary for health Gerald Gwinji, in a circular to provincial medical directors and schools of nursing, did not provide reasons for the decision.
“Please be informed that the recruitment of student nurses from May 2019 and beyond has been suspended,” Gwinji said in the circular dated December 18, 2018.
The freeze on recruitment comes as the government has been failing to offer employment to nursing graduates, citing financial pressure and an out-of-control wage bill.
Some 5,000 nurses are currently out of employment after graduating. The government has previously communicated plans to send them to unnamed regional countries, believed to include Namibia and Lesotho, but the plan has yet to be put into action.
Zimbabwe churns out over 1,000 nursing graduates every year, most of whom fail to find employment after the government froze recruitment.
