Govt to decentralise nurses recruitment

GOVERNMENT will decentralise the e-recruitment of Registered General Nurses (RGN) to the provinces as it intensifies the fight against corruption in the enrolment in line with President Mnangagwa’s call for zero tolerance to corruption.

The e-recruitment, which got impetus in July this year, will spread to other provinces as it is currently being handled by the Ministry of Health and Child Care at its head office in Harare. This is expected to curb bias, corruption and nepotism in the recruitment process.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo made the remarks while officiating at the graduation ceremony of 262 nurses at Harare Central Hospital (HCH) yesterday. He said the introduction of e-recruitment would spread to other provinces and the initiative would assist in the fight against corruption which has seen many prospective candidates losing huge amounts of money in order to secure places.

“The much awaited e-recruitment for RGN which started in July this year is in its pilot stage and is being handled by the ministry using software that is likely to lead to transparency and less bias,” said Dr Moyo.

“As from next year, for the next intake, this will be done in each and every province where we will be able to select candidates directly from the provinces for those who will be able to take part in each particular assessment within that province. We want it to start to spread nationwide and will be controlled at the head office because the amount of corruption which was taking place in the provinces was just too much.”

Dr Moyo said when enrolling, the Ministry should make sure that appropriate candidates with relevant qualifications are enrolled and they should not come through corrupt means. “People were just paying money to be able to get places and the majority who had paid money would not be able to get places and that is what has prompted us to put up the system,” said Dr Moyo.

“The system will curb the vice since students will not be recruited directly, but through the electronic system. There will be no direct contact with the person. We don’t know who the person is even when interviews are carried out, hence we have managed to deal with corruption.”

Dr Moyo said the very people who were condemning the system were the culprits involved in the corrupt recruitment of trainee nurses.

He thanked the nurses for not joining junior doctors who have embarked on an illegal industrial action.

“I want to thank you for your unwavering determination as you did not join junior doctors on strike,” said Dr Moyo. “The current collective job action by our junior medical officers slowed down the smooth running of both basic and post basic nursing training programmes.”

One of the graduates, Ms Shupikai Zvirinane, pledged to work hard and discharge her duties whole heartedly.

“I will work hard and even ignore calls for strikes because we are not here for money, but to serve the nation,” she said.

The graduating nurses were in various fields which includes RGN, midwifery, operating theatre nurses, pediatrics and intensive care nurses.