About 3,000 nurses from rural hospitals and clinics protested in East London on Wednesday, demanding that they be paid rural allowances.
The protest, outside the provincial health department’s Quigney offices, dragged on for most of the day as the demonstrators waited to be addressed by department head Dr Rolene Wagner, who was not available.
Enrolled nurses and nursing assistants who joined the protest said their working conditions had been negatively affected by the poor state of infrastructure at rural hospitals and clinics in the province.
They demanded to be paid rural allowances, which they said were only being paid to professional nurses at present.
The protesters demanded an 8% allowance for nurses working at medical facilities in semirural areas and 12% for those operating in deep rural areas.
One of the organisers, Linamandla Malindi, claimed their union, Denosa, had “dumped” them.
Most of the nurses who took part in the protest were Denosa members, Malindi said.
“We mandated Denosa to fight for our rural allowances. Denosa fought and won [at] arbitration in 2020. But we have waited ever since with no implementation of the arbitration ruling.
“After waiting for so long, we decided to go to Bhisho on April 11 to ask about our rural allowances.
“We notified Denosa about our planned journey to Bhisho but they ignored us. On May 12, on Nurses Day, Denosa said they did not know what we wanted in Bhisho.
“On Monday, Denosa issued a notice saying it had taken the rural allowance matter to the CCMA, without our mandate,” Malindi said.
“We feel like Denosa is disowning us. I am a member of Denosa and I pay my monthly premiums.”
However, Denosa’s acting provincial secretary, Sivuyile Sikwe, said: “We will never dump and disown nurses or downplay their concerns.
“We have been engaging the department since 2019 over the issue of rural allowances, where we indicated that there was a court judgment that it is not only professional nurses who are entitled to rural allowances.”
He said Denosa had decided to take the legal route over the nonpayment of the allowances.
“We support the nurses who are fighting for their rural allowances.
“That protest action in East London was not organised by Denosa,” he said, adding that the union would have supported the protest had it been aware of it.
Malindi said on May 30 representatives of the disgruntled nurses went to Bhisho and finally got an appointment to meet Wagner in East London on June 15.
“Dr Wagner does not respect us. We wrote to her on April 11; she did not respond.
“We wrote to her again on April 22 and she also did not respond. We even called her,” Malindi said.
Health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda said Wagner was not available to meet the protesting nurses on Wednesday because she had other commitments.
She said Wagner had not been aware of the planned protest, but had since received the petition and responded to it.
“According to department officials, there was no agreement reached with the protesting group in 2019.
“The HOD has recently been made aware of arbitration awards made some years back for a few enrolled nurses and enrolled nursing assistants in two districts.
“This is being investigated to resolve this matter.
“The matter is being co-ordinated for the health sector by the bargaining chamber, and the Eastern Cape province will thus align with the national processes,” Dekeda said.
“The department is aiming to have a way forward on this by the end of June to [apprise] organised labour and the representatives of the protesting group.”
Dekeda said Wagner would meet union representatives on Tuesday.
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