Zimbabwe’s richest man Strive Masiyiwa has paid striking medical doctors to return to work, ending the wage disputes between the country’s doctors and the government.

The billionaire offered a $6.25 million fellowship to help ease doctors’ welfare in Zimbabwe. His intervention ended one of the country’s longest strike actions.

Junior doctors in the country’s public hospitals started striking in September to protest poor wages and working conditions.

The Senior Hospital Doctors Association (SHDA) said they could “no longer cope with the poor working conditions and the dire state of health facilities in the country”.

The billionaire’s fellowship through his family’s HigherLife Foundation has brought an end the wage impasse between the striking unions and the government.

The HigherLife Foundation Medical Doctors Fellowship will give monthly allowances to doctors working in the nation’s public hospitals for the next six months.

It also includes free transport vouchers for beneficiaries during working days and on-call duties.

Masimba Ndoro from the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, which represents 600 doctors working at 1,600 government-run hospitals and clinics across the country, said half of its members have already enrolled for the fellowship.