Nurses to be hired after protest
Graduates sleeping outside offices in Bhisho get priority as 500 to be employed
PREMIER Phumulo Masualle has instructed the provincial Department of Health to advertise 500 nursing posts by the end of next week.
Filling the posts is expected to go a long way towards addressing staff shortages in some of the Eastern Cape’s health facilities.
The directive comes as 150 unemployed nursing graduates have been sleeping outside the department’s Dukumbana House offices in Bhisho since last week, demanding to be permanently employed.
Provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the instruction followed a meeting on Monday between Health MEC Phumza Dyantyi and Masualle.
The nursing graduates have subsequently agreed to call off the protest while they wait for the human resources processes to unfold.
Provincial government spokesman Sonwabo Mbananga said although the mandate for the employment of nurses rested with individual hospitals, Masualle had chosen to prioritise the nurses who had been sleeping outside the health offices in Bhisho.
Mbananga said Masualle had held a meeting with a group of the nurses last week to find out what their grievances were.
Masualle had then promised to hold talks with Dyantyi.
“All employment processes need time and two months have been dedicated to the employment of these nurses,” Mbananga said.
The nursing graduates’ spokesman, Thembinkosi Qwakanisa, said the protest had been called off after Masualle’s directive.
He said the commitment by the department and the premier had strict timelines that made them comfortable to go home and wait out the employment process.
“We are going home with hope and are happy with the deadlines that have been set.”
Kupelo, who admitted last week that the department had staff shortages in its health facilities but that addressing the shortages depended on the availability of funds, said yesterday the department would advertise the 500 posts as directed and hoped to conclude the recruitment process in August.
He stressed that the nursing graduates would still have to apply for the posts, which would be advertised next week.
Kupelo said the protesters had been offered place to sleep inside the building, but had refused.
Two months have been dedicated to the employment of these nurses