Management, staff, nurses and members of the public were recently forced to wait outside the Ladysmith Provincial Hospital after the main gates were allegedly locked by officials from National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU).
“We were told not to go inside and a few night shift nurses were not allowed out,” said people standing outside the hospital premises. Traffic was diverted as nurses parked along the street, waiting to gain entrance to the hospital and officers from Public Safety and SAPS were also on the scene.
“Ladysmith Visible Policing and Public Order Policing were on the scene and monitoring the situation. Services were back to normal at the hospital towards the afternoon,” said Warrant Officer Bash Khan of SAPS Ladysmith.
The reason for the lockdown at the hospital is that NEHAWU wants to send a message to the government that members of the public service sector deserve a decent salary increase, not just the 3% increase which was granted last year. Wage disputes are still continuing as the union is demanding a 10 to 12% increase.
Acting Minister of Public Service and Administration, Thulas Nxesi, strongly condemned the strike by public servants affiliated with NEHAWU.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for strong action to be taken against striking NEHAWU workers as protest action takes place, despite a court interdict to prevent it.
“Health professionals are classified as ‘essential service employees’ for good reason. Denying them their right to work through fear of intimidation cannot be discounted as a strategy in this strike action,” said Edwin Baptie (MPL), DA KZN Spokesperson on Health.
Baptie said that KZN’s Department of Health, under MEC Nomaguga Simelane-Zulu, is already in a poor state and this latest development should be a wake-up call for better governance.
“Our labor legislation and law enforcement regime is also in desperate need of an overhaul to outlaw such behaviour. Our province cannot afford the social, economic and credibility damage that this conduct brings. KZN’s people deserve better.”
