As strike by one of South Africa’s key healthcare unions continued to disrupt services at public hospitals on Tuesday, with reports of violence, intimidation and compromised patient care, unions insisted members were demonstrating peacefully.
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) has embarked on an indefinite unprotected strike over wages, despite two court interdicts secured by the government.
“We dispute any allegation that we are causing disruptions to services in various hospitals, we have been demonstrating peacefully,” said Nehawu spokesperson Lwazi Nkolonzi.
“We have not seen any violence. In fact, we noticed that in various hospitals private security was used to intimidate and assault our members,” he said, denying that Nehawu members had intimidated patients or healthcare providers.
His statement is at odds with media reports and provincial health department statements from Gauteng, Free State, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Gauteng health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said that for the second day in a row striking Nehawu members had disrupted services at hospitals throughout the province. Nehawu had blocked public hospital entrances, prevented night-shift staff from leaving, stopped ambulances from moving in and out of facilities and intimidated patients and healthcare workers. The SA Police Service had been called in to secure safe access to facilities, and the provincial health department would apply the “no work, no pay” rule, he said.
Eastern Cape health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth condemned the unprotected strike, saying: “We understand that workers have a right to demonstrate, but when they do they cannot infringe on the rights of others. We cannot afford to have a situation where the lives of patients and staff not on strike are in danger as a result of the action of those who have embarked on this action.”
Nehawu’s action violated patients’ constitutional rights to health and life, said the provincial health department. Health facilities throughout the province were affected and law enforcement officers were being deployed to protect staff and patients.
Western Cape health department COO Saadiq Kariem said the province’s services were largely unaffected, attributing this to a good working relationship between labour, health facilities and the provincial health department.
Angelique Coetzee, who is a member of the SA Medical Association and its former chair, said the strike had affected the delivery of healthcare services to communities.
“In certain hospitals, patients were not looked after as there was a total lack of nursing staff, which compromised healthcare and that’s unacceptable,” she said.
Doctors, nurses, radiographers and physiotherapists represented an essential service and should not be allowed to go on any form of strike, she said.
Nehawu and the state reached a deadlock in wage negotiations after the state unilaterally implemented a 3% salary increase for 2022/2023 in October. The union is demanding 10%.
Nehawu served the employer with a strike notice in February.
The department of public service & administration successfully interdicted the strike from going ahead on Saturday. However, Nehawu lodged an appeal on Sunday and said the industrial action would go ahead as planned because the appeal suspended the interdict.
On Monday, the department successfully approached the labour court for an order granting it leave to execute the court interdict. On Monday evening, Nehawu said it had launched an appeal at the Labour Appeal Court (LAC).
“Having launched an appeal … the national union will be forging ahead with the public service strike until a determination is made on our appeal at the LAC,” Nehawu said.
