A report by the UK Government data indicates that Zimbabwe skilled workers` visas to the UK increased by 424% between 2020 and 2022 with the health sector accounting for a larger percentage.
Although the opposition, Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) attributes the migration to poor salaries and political victimization, independent analysts who spoke to this publication said the increase reflected the top class quality of Zimbabwean skilled workers.
CCC Spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere charged that more than 4 000 local health professionals quit their jobs in the last three years due to poor salaries.
Mahere tweeted that “4000 health professionals have quit work in Zimbabwe in the last three years due to poor pay. The rate at which we are losing doctors and nurses to this avoidable brain drain is cause for great national concern. We need new leaders.”
However, a local healthcare practitioner, Dr Tatenda Gozho dismissed Mahere’s sentiments saying that the increase in Zimbabwe skilled workers` visas to the UK reflects the quality of products that are being churned out of the training institutions.
“Zimbabwe’s manpower training system produces world class products which are highly sought after the world over including the so called developed nations. That is why they are found in every corner of the world. We should take pride in the fact that our education system is producing top notch skilled workers. It is not even brain drain because we have thousands of these skilled workers that have not been absorbed in the job market and we will continue to train more for the benefit of the global health,” said Dr Gozho who is a lecturer in Cardiothoracic Surgery at a local university.
Dr Gozho drew the attention of critics to the US based Zimbabwe born Scientist, Dr Tatenda Shopera who made history by being part of a team that developed the world’s first Covid 19 vaccines, Pfizer/BioNTech Covid 19 vaccine. He implored people to see positivity in the migration of skilled workers to the UK as they raise the national flag by making impact at a global scale.
Another analyst, Rutendo Shamu said that the UK had been on a massive recruitment of health personnel.
“According to official National Health Services (NHS) figures, as of 31 December 2021, the country needed 39 652 nurses and 8 158 doctors having lost many to COVID-19. The UK is forced to offer lucrative packages to those willing to migrate to that country to beef up its health sector personnel.
“It’s all about greener pastures nothing else. Even if Mahere herself was offered a handsome salary at Kent (University), she will not think twice,” he said.
Shamu dismissed allegations of political victimization arguing that even ZANU PF supporters have been migrating.
“It’s an irrational argument to attribute the migration to political victimization. Don’t we have ZANU PF supporters who are also migrating? We even have a ZANU PF UK Branch. Did they run away from political victimization? Some people just want to politicize everything for political profit,” said Shamu.
The migration of skilled workers to the UK is not unique to Zimbabwe. According to the report, Zimbabwe is not the one with the highest visa grants as it trails behind India and Nigeria, countries that are viewed as democratic and relatively rich. This defeats the narrative of poor governance which the opposition tries to advance, leveraging on the report.
