EPWP workers block entrance to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital during protest
EPWP workers want answers from Baragwanath Hospital management.
The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers marched to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to demand answers from management since they [protesters] claim there is corruption and nepotism in the vicinity.
A word from our journalist who’s at the scene is that the entrance to the hospital has been closed by protesters.
Only ambulances and casualties were let in the hospital while all the other private cars were directed to the other entrance by the security guards.
Workers, whom for years, have been under temporary contracts, say they have had to watch people fill positions ‘promised’ to them by the hospital.
We understand that EPWP workers [who claim they’ve been sidelined since 2014] decided to deliver a memorandum yesterday at the hospital.
EPWP workers, again, allege that the hospital is biased in its approach to employ staff and that it overlooks the employment policies.
Gubisto Arthur, one of the EPWP workers and a regional secretary for the Black Land First (BLF)Â led the protest that went on all morning yesterday.
Arthur said, “We have marched to deliver a memorandum, we want the corruption to end, we have been sidelined since 2014, we have families too.”
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Bheki Miya [EPWP worker] complained about the allegations of nepotism in the hospital. Miya has been working at the hospital since 2013, with the same promise of being a permanent employee as everyone else, to no avail.
He has since lost his job and along with Joseph Moloka and Lorraine Ndi, who’ve both been rewarded with performance certificates by the hospital.
Ndi said, “I was told that my recommendation would earn me a job and help put food on my table, but now I’m outside the gate.”
One of the placards at the protest read, ‘We don’t have R3000 to buy jobs’. Siphamandla Masimula, the Provincial Secretary for BLFÂ said, “We just want a positive response.”
The protest is underway and more updates to follow.
