The government’s firing of striking nurses will anger workers and their unions, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Saturday.
”All the trade unions will be extremely angry at this provocative and quite unnecessary move by the government,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.
”It is clearly just an act of intimidation which we have condemned from all sides and particularly condemn now. It will make workers extremely angry.
”There is no question that we will be demanding that these letters be withdrawn as part of any settlement,” he said.
The Health Department said on Saturday that it had been decided to start issuing striking nurses with letters of termination.
The decision was made at a meeting between Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, said spokesperson Sibani Mngadi.
Health Department director general Thami Mseleku last week ordered nurses to return to work, or face dismissal.
The nurses are striking for better pay, along with the rest of the public service.
Disaster zones
Their absence has crippled many public-health facilities.
The casualty, surgery and intensive care units of Soweto’s Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospital were declared disaster zones on Friday by its chief executive officer Arthur Manning.
Patients in the units had to be moved into private care, said hospital spokesperson, Hester van den Heever, adding that the hospital did not have enough nurses with the specialist skills needed to work in the three units.
Durban’s King Edward VIII was forced to close on Friday after a week of limited services marred by intimidation.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reported that the Limpopo health department was moving patients from badly hit hospitals to those which were less affected by the strike, and was still using soldiers to bolster the staff complement.
In Mpumalanga, the situation at the 300-bed Rob Ferreira Hospital, in Nelspruit, was gradually improving, with 30 nurses on duty on Saturday morning — in addition to soldiers.
The hospital’s acting chief executive officer Savera Mohangi told the SABC less sick patients had been discharged, leaving only 170 patients needing medical attention in the hospital.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the company had put extra ambulance staff on duty to cope with the workload in KwaZulu-Natal, where no provincial ambulances were running in eThekweni, according to health spokesperson Leon Mbanja.
The provincial health management team was in a meeting on Saturday to discuss the effects of the strike.
”We have a crisis,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Gauteng department of health appealed for the help of retired nurses and volunteers.
The call was echoed by the national health department, which said: ”We urge people all over the country to assist.” – Sapa