Public servants failing in duty to do their jobs

Nurses wait for documentation

UNLESS public servants in the municipalities, provincial and national governments realise that they are working for and paid by the public, we will never stop seeing violent scenes like we have involving angry people at Motherwell and young nurses who slept outside the department of health offices in King William’s Town.

Most of these people in all these spheres of government take the public for granted, undermining the public’s intelligence.

Why does one have to fight to get attention or a service that one deserves from a person who is employed to help you and paid by you?

Public servants are paid exorbitantly.

There were vacancies for nurses at the Provincial Hospital, Uitenhage, and some nurses applied.

Some were already employed somewhere temporarily and some were not.

In November last year, these nurses were called for interviews and in January they were told that they had been successful.

Strangely, in March, two months after they were informed that they had been successful, they were phoned to confirm whether they were still available and also when they could start work.

Those who were already working resigned from their jobs as they were already informed in January that they had been successful and they confirmed when they were able to start in their new jobs.

It was a surprise to these young women to find out only when they reported for duty on May 2, almost two months after they confirmed their availability and five months after they accepted the employment offer, that their letters of employment had not yet been signed at Bhisho.

On arrival at the hospital, they were told that the hospital’s human resources department had not informed them to start in May, but was only confirming their availability.

Ironically, according to the hospital superintendent, the hospital is desperately short of staff and desperately needs these nurses.

I am sure the poor patients also need them more.

But somebody had sat with the unsigned letters of employment since January.

What has the one who confirmed their availability done since March?

This pathetic behaviour by public servants is so pervasive in the new South Africa nowadays.

How can documents take four months to be signed?

It seems apparent that the department knew already in January that these vacancies had to be filled, hence it approved the employment of these nurses and informed them accordingly, but in May, five months thereafter, documents were not ready.

We are in July now and the nurses are still sitting at home, waiting for the muddle of the department of health to be solved.

When one approaches the authorities about this kind of situation, one finds excuses after excuses, for something trivial like the signing of documents.

It is understood that the nurses will now eventually start in August.

No wonder some people jump to the conclusion that, surely, in some aspects, things were better handled in the old South Africa.

This is the treatment we received from the department of health in Uitenhage, district office and provincial office when we, as parents, tried to assist in our children’s plight:

ý They do not reply to your phone calls, e-mails and SMSes you send them. You leave messages after messages for them to come back to you – they will never come back;

ý They do not acknowledge your correspondence;

ý Workers are either in the bathroom, off duty, at lunch or in a meeting. It is as if “the meeting” is their only job description;

ý The public is treated with utter disdain and perfect contempt;

ý Your intelligence is undermined and you are treated like a loafer.

Nobody condones the toyi-toyis we experience almost every day in our beloved country, which become violent at times, but I have seen people’s patience is stretched too far sometimes, unfortunately.