HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday threatened striking doctors with unspecified action after they defied a court ruling that they should return to work.

Mnangagwa claimed the doctors were under “outside influence”, while maintaining that the government was too broke to meet their wage demands.

Junior doctors have not been reporting for work since September 3, claiming they are “incapacitated”.

A court last week ordered them to resume duties while the dispute goes to arbitration, but the doctors have maintained the court order can only be complied with if they get a significant pay rise indexed to the United States dollar.

Mnangagwa, speaking to rural district councillors in Harare on Thursday, said: “Two months ago, we raised their salaries and they came back again saying the value of the money had been eroded and we offered them a 30 percent increase which they rejected and we increased it to 60 percent which they rejected again.

“After going through what’s happening, we’ve discovered that there’re a few individuals who’re getting outside influence and then coming to influence others to continue with the strike. But what we’re saying to the doctors is that you’re Zimbabweans, and the sick people are also Zimbabweans.

“.. But if you insist on being stubborn, we’ll see where it’ll get you to. You might think what you’re doing is right, but we’ll see what will happen at the end.”

The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) has appealed the Labour Court’s ruling the Supreme Court.

“We noted the court order but unfortunately we don’t have the means by which to comply,” said ZHDA spokesman Masimba Ndoro on Monday.

“We remain incapacitated… There is nothing we can do when we don’t have the means to go to work and to meet our basic needs.”

The doctors say their pay has lost value by at least 1,500 percent, a legacy of economic mismanagement under the Zanu PF government.

Mnangagwa has so far failed to redress the situation.

Fuel prices have increased by more than 400 percent since the start of the year, and the ZHDA said that doctors had to use their savings just to show up to hospital each morning.

Negotiations with the government have been deadlocked since the ZHDA rejected the 60 percent salary rise offer.

With pay slips worth less than US$100 in some cases, they are demanding doctors’ salaries be pegged to the US dollar and have appealed to international bodies to supplement their wages.