Nehawu lambasts govt over workers’ rights at Tambo Memorial hospital staff service
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has called out the provincial leadership of trade union for raising labour issues during a remembrance service held for victims of the Boksburg tanker blast.
During a healing service held in honour of 12 staffers from the Tambo Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, the union’s Gauteng chairperson Sello Mafela lambasted government for ignoring the demands of workers for pay hikes and improved working conditions.
“We can’t rest as organised labour and ascend podiums whilst we are quite aware that the people that have departed here, are people who have had no increases as we speak, they are dying now without their 3%,” he said.
“They are dying now with the government that we have put in power unashamedly telling us ukuthi’masizamile. These are heartbroken people lying here, "he said.
Earlier one of the speakers described how 41-year-old nurse Kgothatso Mogapane had volunteered to work on Christmas Eve when she was supposed to be off duty.
“Don’t that it’s all about passion, let’s be honest. The kids must eat. January is coming so I must at least sell my labour and get that overtime,” Mafela continued.
He challenged government to ensure that the bereaved families are given financial support and all the benefits due to them.
“We will ensure, as organised labour, that we monitor that the workers that have departed – their children and their families are taken care of. There is a slow implementation. A worker can die in 2019 and you will find that even today they have not got their money. Where is the problem? Are we lacking management? Do we have incompetent workers? So many workers have departed, so many families have lost breadwinners, can we make sure that their children get what they deserve.”
WATCH: Nehawu’s GP chair Sello Mafela says the plight of workers for salary increases and better working conditions shouldn’t be forgotten in this time of grief. “These were heartbroken workers” he says about the deceased health workers from Tambo Memorial Hosp #BoksburgExplosion pic.twitter.com/4a1OaTwI3u
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) January 10, 2023
But Nkomo-Ralehoko said Mafela had used the wrong platform to air the “dirty laundry” between the department, unions and the workers they represent.
She added that, after taking up the position of Health MEC, she had already met with unions thrice.
“For me, I felt that my colleague was not doing it right. We have alliance meetings, and those are the meetings with them, but when it comes to workers’ issues, we have a forum that I want them to come to and raise those things.”
At the same time, the MEC has called on organised labour to help her eradicate the use of labour agencies, who are the middlemen for contract workers at health facilities across the province.
“They can’t sit and keep quiet when every month I’m paying more than R50 million to nursing agencies that are working in the department, and they are part of the staff in the department, they are the ones that must be vocal about that, but they don’t raise it.”
Nkomo-Ralehoko said the department is now faced with nurses who will be unemployed from March when their contracts expire, despite there being a dire shortage in the province. She said the money used to pay agencies should be used to permanently employ nurses.