A group of workers protested at the Ga-Rankuwa hospital, north-west of Pretoria, on Thursday against its renaming after the late Dr George Mukhari, Gauteng health department representative Simon Zwane confirmed.
A public meeting about the renaming was being held at the hospital at the request of trade union leaders, he said. Zwane denied a report that officials, including provincial health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, were prevented from entering the
premises.
He estimated that fewer than hundred general workers participated in the protest. They did not attend the meeting, Zwane said.
”I don’t know how big their constituency is.”
Paul Motshegwa, a representative for the protesters, told SABC radio news that stakeholders were not properly consulted about the renaming.
The Gauteng government said in a statement it decided to rename the hospital after Mukhari, an anti-apartheid activist, following a public hearing in June last year.
This proposed renaming was published in the provincial gazette and opportunity was given for objections, none of which were made. A public hearing was also held about the matter, and no one raised concerns, Zwane said.
It did appear though as if the community did not really understand the process, and that would be explained to them at Thursday’s meeting.
A date for the renaming function had not yet been set, Zwane said. Mukhari was a political activist and a member of the United Democratic Front and the African National Congress. He was also treasurer of the SA Communist Party, the statement said.
”A son of Tshwane, Dr Mukhari went beyond the call of duty and offered free medical services to people in financial difficulties such as the elderly, former detainees and freedom fighters.
”A story that is often told about him is how he offered his services to the people of Winterveldt when political violence erupted in the 1980s. Dr Mukhari risked arrest by the apartheid forces when he treated people injured by police bullets in a church
because they would be arrested if they went to the hospital.”
He helped a number of needy students who could not pay tuition fees and also offered free accommodation at his home for disadvantaged students who had no place to stay, the statement said. – Sapa