‘Voodoo’ outrage
VOODOO, or victimisation? That’s what health authorities in KwaZulu-Natal are probing after a bizarre incident at Pietermaritzburg’s Northdale Hospital where a Hindu staff member was stripped of her religious belongings.
The nursing manager was picked on after a whistle-blower went to the hospital’s new bosses, who apparently thought the items – incense sticks, a statue of Lord Muruga and a framed photograph of Sai Baba – were related to black magic.
“Emotionally depressed” by the January 31 incident, the 55-year-old woman has seen a doctor, her shocked husband told POST. He did not want their names to be published.
“She has been to a doctor and needs to go back for a follow-up.
She has not been at work since Tuesday last week and may return today,” he said yesterday.
Contrary to the claims, he said his wife is a religious and an ardent devotee of Sai Baba, having visited Baba’s ashram in Puttaparthi, India, on three occasions. “She has been a devotee for over 20 years. She and fellow-staff do readings of the Bhagavad Gita during their lunch times,” he said.It is alleged the hospital’s chief executive, Buhle Maphanga, and members of the executive committee forced her to empty a box containing her personal belongings, reportedly believing them to be “voodoo-related”, the husband said.
The KZN Department of Health has condemned the incident, saying the matter would be fully investigated, while hospitality sector trade union Hospersa has scheduled a meeting tomorrow to discuss the incident.
Advocate Ranjiv Nirghin, president of the Midlands Hindu Society, said: “It is especially concerning that the management officials involved in this matter are alleged to have disrespected the religious beliefs of a long-serving employee of the hospital, who has freely practised her Hindu religious beliefs at the hospital since the beginning of her employment.”.
Condemning the incident as “outrageous”, Ashwin Trikamjee, president of the SA Hindu Maha Sabha, said:“There was a lack of sensitivity to religious beliefs.”
The provincial secretary of Hospersa, Popson Kunene, told POST the meeting scheduled for tomorrow was to garner views from staff on the incident and new management.
“It will be a platform for them to raise their frustrations over the new management appointed in December.”
Kunene added that protocol should have been observed and the nursing manager’s direct superior should have approached her.
“She (the CEO) used her power and jumped the gun.”
In a statement issued by the Department of Health, spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said that when hospital management tried to later hand the items back to the nurse, she allegedly declined to accept them.
“It is understood that the nursing operational manager was highly distressed by this incident,” he said, adding: “If any individual is found guilty of contravening another’s constitutional rights, they will be subjected to the most appropriate sanction allowed by law.
“The department wishes to remind all government employees that in the course of their duty, they are at all times expected to fully respect and abide by the Constitution of South Africa, which states:
“No person shall be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, and, without derogating from the generality of this provision, on one or more of the following grounds in particular: race, gender, sex, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language.”