WATCH | Doctor manhandled by striking workers, call for soldiers' intervention

A video has emerged showing striking healthcare workers forcibly removing a doctor from a Mpumalanga hospital.

The two-minute clip shows striking workers demanding she delete a video despite her telling them they don't have permission to be there. This was while they hurled insults at her and threatened her. 

At one point, the workers are seen grabbing her legs while she holds on to her desk. The workers later succeed in removing her from the office.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) and South African Medical Association (Sama) have condemned intimidation of and violence against healthcare workers not participating in the strike action.

Friday was the fifth day of the strike by workers affiliated with the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union which has seen disruptions to services at various healthcare facilities and departments across the country.

The strike is over a wage dispute for the 2022/23 financial year in which the employer implemented a 3% salary increase and a R1,000 cash gratuity payment. 

It has been characterised by intimidation and assault of healthcare workers and some patients being turned away from hospitals. 

Seven people have been arrested —  one for throwing faeces at a home affairs office in the Northern Cape.

Sama chairperson Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa on Friday said while they sympathised with the plight of the striking workers, they did not agree with “the way they are conducting themselves”.

“Not everyone belongs to Nehawu so you cannot expect that just because one union is on strike, then everybody else is expected to comply,” he said.

Mzukwa also spoke on the deaths of four patients announced by health minister Joe Phaahla, saying that these were just the tip of the iceberg as there might be other patients the department or public did not know about.

“There are stories of babies in the paediatric wards who have gone without food for a long period of time ... that's how cruel the strike, in terms of patient care, has been.

“We are going to see a lot of patients dying from this,” he said.

He said the strike would also worsen the backlog workers were trying to clear from the Covid-19 pandemic era and affect critical services to patients.

Mzukwa said the strike would have a psychological impact on doctors because of the fearful conditions they were being forced to work under.

“The burnout, psychologically and physically, because ... examining a patient is tiring on its own and now if you've got other added things that you do for the survival of that patient, nursing the patient, feeding, cooking for the patient, that is beyond what I can describe,” he said.

Denosa meanwhile, expressed its support for the strike, saying it spoke “to the very same challenges that nurses and our members in the nursing fraternity are faced with”.

It added while it encouraged members barred from striking due to being essential workers to join Nehawu off-duty, it was worried about the work challenges faced by non-striking workers.

“Our people must be safe in those environments because we see other activities that are not necessarily a part of the strike,” Denosa Gauteng chairperson Thabang Sonyathi said.

“A strike generally attracts even people that are not on strike, they take advantage [because] security might not be at its best. They [strikers] must stop intimidating workers because when they are intimidating them, they're making them scared.”

Sonyathi cited an incident in Kwa-Thema where striking workers threatened those who weren't taking part in protest action.

Speaking about the burden placed on nurses due to their colleagues' absence, Denosa national deputy secretary Khaya Sodidi said this would worsen the chronic shortage of nurses.

“The support system for nurses and doctors is [now] not there ... so it's a crisis,” he said.

Both Sama and Denosa slammed the government for its poor handling of the situation, with Sama calling out the state for failing to have adequate police protection to maintain order.

“If police cannot cope with that, there are soldiers who are trained in health care who are supposed to be in the hospitals to assist the doctors there. No one would remove a soldier in the ward,” he said.

Sodidi said while disruptions were “regrettable”, the government must accept full blame for the situation. 

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