Motsoaledi vows to act against Charlotte Maxeke ‘hooligans’
Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi has lashed out at striking staff at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg after they caused chaos at the facility on Thursday.
Workers from the National Health Education & Allied Workers Union went on the rampage at the state hospital on Thursday, preventing patients from entering the hospital and emptying trash cans on the floors.
“People have really crossed the line,” Motsoaledi said. “It is completely unacceptable. I regard this act here not as an act of labour but an act of pure hooliganism.”
Motsoaledi and Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa visited the hospital late on Thursday to assess the damage.
The situation at #CharlotteMaxeke has calmed down, but most patients have left and non-emergency ops cancelled pic.twitter.com/9Z7xFhFUSw
— Jack Bloom (@JackBloomDA) May 31, 2018
Workers accuse the Gauteng Department of Health of failing to pay performance bonuses. They are also unhappy about the pace of wage negotiations.
A visibly upset Motsoaledi accused health workers of failing their duty to protect and serve and vowed to lay criminal action against those who put the lives of patients in danger.
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“Whatever information we can have to get people arrested, they must be arrested. Let me make it very clear: I will get very scared, very, very scared as a minister if I could find a person working here as a cleaner or general worker or whatever, who has got the audacity to get into theatre and stop people for performing operations.
“That person is a murderer.”