Lockdown:

Patients walk next to waste at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg. One of SA’s largest hospitals was trashed and barricaded by workers who downed tools over the failure of the hospital to pay performance bonuses and overtime.

Protesters on Thursday paralysed one of SA’s largest hospitals, Charlotte Maxeke, blocking ambulances and reportedly disrupting operations.

More than 100 support staff stopped work to demand that the hospital, also known as Joburg General, pay performance bonuses and overtime, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said.

Striking staff, including nurses and porters, picketed inside the hospital building, upended bins and barricaded doors to prevent police from entering the site.

Tshepo Mokheranyana, Nehawu’s regional leader, said the union was forced to take action after the government failed to intervene despite a rally at the health department in March. “Employers must never take workers for granted because if workers have worked hard ... they should be rewarded for that. No one should take that for granted.”

The DA’s health spokesman, Jack Bloom, said he had received unconfirmed reports of protestors interrupting surgery, forcing medical staff to retreat while abandoning a patient.

There was no increased security either inside or outside the hospital. The facility has more than 1,000 beds and serves Johannesburg and surrounding areas.

“We have not been paid our bonuses for two years,” said a protesting worker, who declined to be named.

But not all hospital staff supported the protest.

“They have intimidated other colleagues in other parts of the hospital. Now we are also scared of being attacked,” said a worker as she left the hospital.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi condemned the workers’ actions. “I regard this act not as an act of labour but an act of true hooliganism,” he told reporters, “just sheer acts of hooliganism, where people have just gone mad against their fellow human beings.”

The union will meet hospital management and government officials on Friday in an effort to resolve the crisis.

Black bags containing litter were emptied along the corridors. Outside the hospital‚ arriving patients — including pregnant women and patients in wheelchairs — left without getting treatment. Earlier‚ the gates to the hospital were locked in an attempt to contain the protest.

A hospital source‚ who asked not to be named‚ told Business Day: “We presume it is related to performance evaluations which [used to] lead to the awarding of bonuses. But now‚ there is no money for bonuses. There is no harm to the patients inside‚” the source said‚ adding that medics were attending to them.

Health department spokesman Lesemang Matuka referred all questions to the hospital’s CEO‚ Gladys Bogoshi.

She was‚ however‚ said to be in an emergency meeting with the police.

In April‚ medical waste and rubbish were dumped all over the hospital’s floors by workers‚ including nurses, cleaners and porters. At the time‚ their union said they were dissatisfied with the hospital’s nonpayment of performance bonuses.

Earlier in May‚ the hospital’s spokesman, Lungiswa Mvumvu, told PowerTalk Radio host Iman Rappetti that management had not paid workers’ performance bonuses for two years.

“Their grievance is the nonpayment of their performance bonuses‚ which affects all Gauteng health departments.…

“They have not been paid these bonuses for the last two financial years,” Mvumvu was quoted as saying.

I REGARD THESE AS SHEER ACTS OF HOOLIGANISM, WHERE PEOPLE HAVE JUST GONE MAD