Three patients in an intensive care unit were among those detained after a clash between striking workers and police at Garankuwa Hospital, near Pretoria, this week. lt is alleged by eyewitnesses that patients were among those teargassed and beaten and some were even detained Patients when police, after a three minute warning, opened fire on a crowd of workers on Monday.
The South African Police Public Relations Division in Pretoria yesterday denied using teargas at the hospital. ”Only rubber bullets, batons and police dogs were used to disperse the crowd.” The SAP spokesman also denied that ICU patients were among those bitten by police dogs or baton-charged. However the spokesman did not respond to questions about the detentions. Three ICU patients were still in detention yesterday, as were eight nurses and more than 20 other hospital workers.
The hospital itself was deserted; many patients had been transferred to Kalafong and HF Verwoerd hospitals. Only a handful of patients were still at Garankuwa Hospital, waiting for relatives to collect them. Some said they had been hastily discharged even though that they had not completely recovered. The corridors leading to the wards were badly littered. Linen and patients’ clothing lay outside the doors of the wards in black refuse bags. No doctors, nurses or other medical staff were on duty.
The hospital came to a standstill yesterday when personnel gathered at ”Freedom Square” at the Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa). Medical students doing their practicals in the hospital joined striking hospital personnel when the Workers’ Committee, representing the National Education and Health Workers Union (Nehawu), met with management to discuss the dispute that had led to the strike. The strike began-last Wednesday when workers demanded the dismissal of two administrators alleged to have made racist remarks.
Peter Dladla, a Workers’ Committee member who was shot on the left arm with a rubber bullet, described Monday’s incident. ”At about 9am on Monday, the superintendent, Dr L van Heerden, brought a court interdict against the Workers’ Committee, stating workers should vacate the premises of the hospital by 11am. ”At about 12.30 a senior police arrived at ‘Helicopter Square’, where workers had been meeting since their strike began, and told us to disperse or resume duties. ”The workers told the police official that they would not disperse until their demands were met.”
Dladla said the police official left to get reinforcements and returned a few minutes later. Just before 1pm, he said, police gave workers three min¬utes to disperse and a plainclothes policeman ordered his colleagues to open fire. ”There was confusion as everybody ran for cover. Some went to the wards and some went to the intensive care unit and surrounding rooms.
”Police fired teargas and baton charged people, and a nurse who was busy attending to a patient in Ward One was bitten by a police dog. Soon after the incident, nurses downed tools in solidarity with the colleague who was bitten by the police dog.” Police left the hospital but returned with more reinforcements. ”Police arrived back at about 3pm with more police dogs and started beating up people, including visitors and patients,” Dladla said. ”There was general confusion and pandemonium as some of the workers and visitors fell and were tram· pled on by people running for safety. The hospital floors and corridors were blood-stained. ”Some of the seriously injured were attended to by nurses while some were sent to Kalafong and HF Verwoerd hospitals,” he said.
Tuesday’s police unrest report said I that police had been summoned on Monday and asked to request a large group of workers either to return to work or leave the premises, as an interdict in this regard had been obtained. ”However, they were defiant and refused to leave. After repeated re· quests to disperse and after bottles were thrown at the police, rubber bullets were used. TPA security personnel assisted the police. ”The mob still refused to disperse. Shortly after 3pm, the district commissioner, Pretoria North District, also requested the group to disperse. However, a bottle was thrown at him. Although he was struck on the head, he was not injured. ”A baton charge was ordered and police dogs were used to disperse the crowd … 15 people were arrested.”
After the incident on Monday, members of Medical Aid Cart (MAC), an association of profession and other medical personnel, called on the director-general of the Trans¬vaal Provincial Administration to de¬mand an explanation for police interference in the dispute. MAC held preliminary talks with the hospital administration yesterday to decide on a mediator. They also demanded the immediate dismissal of the two administrators whose alleged racist behaviour sparked the strike.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
