Social development workers return to work

Striking members of the National‚ Education‚ Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu)‚ employed by the Department of Social Development‚ will return to work on Tuesday.

Their five-week strike ended last week‚ after the department and the union signed a settlement agreement.

Workers were demanding higher entry-level salaries for department employees‚ tools of the trade and rural allowances.

The union laid 13 demands out before the department‚ following failed negotiations in August 2015.

Nehawu spokesperson Khaya Xaba said most of the demands had now been addressed.

We were able to consult the workers and they are fine with the agreement.

• Health workers' strike leaves Limpopo patients in the lurchServices ground to a halt at various government departments in Limpopo as officials affiliated to the National‚ Education‚ Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) embarked on a protest action over a pay dispute.

Gauteng Social Development spokesperson Mbangwa Xaba said that it should take about a week to move children and the elderly back into government facilities‚ after they were transferred to NGOs early on in the strike.

Striking workers were allegedly responsible for the mayhem at some Gauteng child and youth care centres‚ including blocking entrances and preventing food and medication from being delivered‚ which prompted the move.

Six-month-old Singalakha Sonamazi died last month shortly after being transferred to Bethany Trust Home Child and Youth Care Centre from Walter Sisulu Youth and Child Care Centre with her three older sisters. They were among 90 children moved due to allegedly violent striking workers.

• Social worker strike: Volunteers step inVolunteers have been roped in to assist at KwaZulu-Natal child and youth care centres.

This week Singalakha's siblings will be moved back without their baby sister. Their mother has not seen them since her funeral.

“The death of my daughter took its toll on me. It was so bad that it affected me psychologically. I actually became mad‚” their mother Nontsikelelo Sonamanzi told TMG Digital on Monday.

“I was hospitalised for a few hours at Leratong [Hospital]. They gave me medication to calm me down. They then said I should see a psychologist but I did not have money to do it.”

Singalakha was diagnosed with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and was underweight at birth.

Sonamanzi said her daughter was not sick when she last saw her.

“Doctors at [Chris Hani] Baragwanath [Academic Hospital] said she was fine but was not growing. The next thing I was told was that she was dead.”

• Nehawu considering Social Development offer‚ could halt strikeThe National Education‚ Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and the Department of Social Development have wrapped up negotiations‚ which may end the union's national strike.

She complained that she was not informed of the social services strike until she learnt of Singalakha's death.

Sonamanzi said the most devastating thing was not knowing what had caused her daughter’s death.

“Police in Krugersdorp say the post-mortem is still not out and it may take about three months before we get it.”

A man died at Excelsior Youth and Child Care Centre in Durban on March 13‚ the first day of the strike‚ said KwaZulu-Natal Social Development spokesperson Ncumisa Fandesi.

“It is under investigation by the police. He was stabbed and he died at the centre. We do not have any other details.”

Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele confirmed the man's death was being investigated but could not say whether it had been linked to the strike.

• MEC calls for calm after death of six-month-old childGauteng Social Development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza has called for calm following the death of a six-month-old child‚ who was transferred from a government facility in the wake of strike action.

Fandesi said that disruptions due to the strike were minimal in the province.

In Gauteng the department's Xaba said structural damage to the province's centres was also minimal.

“We are happy and relieved that the strike is over. We are happy to serve our people.”

The department assisted Singalakha's family with the cost of her burial.

Nehawu's Xaba said shift workers around the country started returning to work on Friday last week‚ but that the rest would join them on Tuesday.

“The only thing we were not able to agree on was the implementation and modalities of the rural allowance and the review of the [Occupation Specific Dispensation for social services workers].”

Xaba said workers who joined the strike though they provide essential services will not face dismissal but a written warning instead‚ because they were not properly notified by the department that their actions could lead to dismissal.