POLOKWANE – National Health, Education and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) has promised to embark on rolling mass action with lunchtime pickets and to march to the offices of the Premier, Treasury and Department of Health on 13 July.
This followed protest action at the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital on Monday where members attempted to bring the hospital to a standstill.
On Monday during a press conference Nehawu called for the recalling of Ramathuba, saying the health care system in Limpopo crisis is deepening and “almost all healthcare facilities are at a point of collapse”.
“The department has started paying out performance bonuses for 2016/17 unilaterally, limiting the budget to R90 million, while they were supposed to use a budget of R164 million for performance bonuses,” said Nehawu provincial secretary Jacob Adams.
Other issues which are contentious according to Adams are the limitation of overtime to 30% of an individual’s monthly salary, lack of equipment in all health care facilities, professional nurses remaining unemployed after doing community service in hospitals and clinics, the stoppage of paying postgraduate nurses’ benefits after acquiring new qualifications, investigations regarding senior officials gathering dust and shop stewards being victimised after exposing incompetent managers.
Demands including but not limited to the removal of the HOD and MEC of Health, scrapping of all austerity measures and Treasury instruction notes, Payment of 100% performance notices and overtime, filling of all vacancies in all departments, insourcing of all services currently outsourced, scrapping of rental fees arrears, abolishment of salary levels 1 to 3 in the public service and the re-opening of the closed EMS College will also be submitted.
Adams said the march would be led by national office bearers.
