Lynda Gledhill
While a nurse’s job is to heal the sick, mending the profession’s racial wounds is proving difficult.
The recently formed Democratic Nursing Association of South Africa is struggling to overcome the still-prevalent problem of racism, especially in private hospitals.
“These places are still predominately white,” said the association’s president, Philda Nomusa Dudu Nzimande. “The majority of the administration is white and the lower workers are black.”
The association has pledged to confront management. “If government policies say so many people must be employed in management of a certain colour, we should be checking to make sure this happens,” Nzimande said.
One nurse, who claims she was fired from a private clinic because she is black, said the all-white management will not stand up for the rights of black employees. “They would agree I was right, but do nothing about my problems,” she said. “I just want to be treated like a professional and a human being.”
Nzimande admits that the organisation is also fighting racism internally. “Whenever you have people of different backgrounds, there are going to be problems,” she said. “The nursing profession has not been in harmony with what has been going on in the country.” The association is an umbrella organisation formed to absorb more than 10 nurses’ unions.
This week the association hosted Kirsten Stallknecht, president of the International Council of Nurses. She expressed hope that South African nurses will bridge the racial chasm. “Of course there are still many hostile feelings,” she said. “I think it’s very important they don’t give in to that.”
While in the country, Stallknecht announced a R1-million funding project for the unions from the council and the Danish government.