Social media and other media platforms are blowing up with criticism against president Yoweri Museveni after he publicly revealed that government had resolved to hire the services of Cuban medical doctors because some members of the medical fraternity in Uganda, especially those in leadership, were inciting others to abandon patients to die an act, he said, was selfish, unprofessional and went against the code of conduct of medical practitioners.
An angry Museveni, while speaking to hundreds of people that turned up for International Labour Day celebrations today at Ssembabule Town Council playgrounds in Sembabule District, noted that it was unbelievable that a professional doctor could abandon or incite other doctors to abandon patients under their care to die because they need salary enhancement. He said that such conduct was not only unprofessional but also inhuman, and it is the reason he went to the bush in the first place.
A doctor who preaches others to abandon patients because of salary is a doctor no more. We in the NRA, we were fighting for many years to liberate Uganda without pay but we never abandoned the cause. Even these UPDF soldiers have been fighting and securing the country either at no pay or low pay but they have not abandoned the country, he said.
The President had in the past threatened to replace Ugandan medics with Cuban, if they did not stop holding government at ransom as they sought salary increase.
Today howevet, the President made it clear that government is not opposed to the enhancement of salaries of Civil Servants but noted that any enhancement should be discussed realistically and fairly and put in the context of the entire economy and not in isolation.
He said the entire Civil Service is 1% of the population while the rest of the 99% of the population are in the private sector. He, therefore, explained that it would be unfair to devote a lot of the countrys revenue to cater for the salaries of a small fraction of the population at the expenses of the rest of the population.
Mr. Museveni said that the government has been devoting much of the resources to infrastructure development such as roads, electricity and programmes like NAADS, Operation Wealth Creation, Microfinance and mass projects like the Youth and Women and Innovation Funds programmes that impact the entire economy and do a lot in solving unemployment, income generation and poverty eradication.
The President told the nation that to solve unemployment, the government has been putting in place correct polices to better the economic environment and lower the cost of doing business especially prioritising peace, lowering the cost of transport, electricity and the cost of financial borrowing, among others.
He noted that as the country celebrates International Labour Day, focus should be put on how to generate employment for the increasing population especially the youth. He observed that in the case of Uganda jobs are in commercial agriculture, industry, the service sector and information and communication technology.
He, therefore, used the occasion to appeal to all leaders in government, especially Parliament, to support enhanced budgeting for the crucial sectors for the good of the economy as the country targets achieving the middle income status.
Mr. Museveni stressed that agriculture should be commercial oriented adding that crops like coffee, fruits and zero grazing, poultry and piggery, need to be emphasised. He warned politicians and Civil Servants against corruption such as soliciting for favour from the business class and said they should treat corruption as taboo.
Mr. Arthur Owere, Chairman of the National Organization of Trade Unions of Uganda (NOTU) called for the enhancement of remuneration of Civil Servants to match the changing realities and the high cost of living. He particularly called for narrowing salary gaps between the highest and lowest paid Civil Servants.
He also called for the betterment of the working conditions at places of work, especially in the Civil Service, by availing the needed working tools and equipment to enable them serve society effectively.
