Contracted Covid nurses beg Mabuyane for help
● They want to fill vacancies left by East Cape health workers who died or resigned during pandemic
Contracted Covid-19 nurses who helped bolster the Eastern Cape’s front line to fight the novel coronavirus want to fill the vacancies left by their colleagues who either died or resigned during the pandemic.
More than 300 government health-care workers have died in the Eastern Cape since the start of the pandemic.
Some 80 nurses picketed outside premier Oscar Mabuyane’s offices in Bhisho on Monday, claiming many of them had been dispatched to clinics as hospitals remained empty with the second Covid19 wave coming to an end.
“There are posts which have not been filled for more than a year in some health facilities,” one of the protesting nurses said.
The health department went on a hiring spree early in 2020, resulting in hundreds of health-care workers joining on contracts to help frontline workers. The contracts were signed in February last year, with the health-care workers hired for one year, from April 1 last year to March 31 this year.
The contracted Covid-19 workers were dispatched to various hospitals with much jubilation from the health department — where they battled Covid-19 infections.
Another picketing nurse said the vacancies left by those who had died or resigned due to Covid-19 had yet to be advertised.
“We know these posts [match] our qualifications,” she said.
Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, said the government was looking into the issue of the contracted Covid-19 workers.
“We understand the circumstances of these workers.
“We also understand the financial position of the [health] department,” he said.
“We appreciate the role they played during this disaster we were facing.
“We will provide an update on this matter to the affected workers who were appointed on contract to deal with the Covid-19 disaster.”
The nurses first protested outside the health department’s headquarters in Bhisho on Monday but were told to take up their grievances with Mabuyane.
The nurses are also complaining about not being paid or being shortchanged, or not being compensated for overtime.
Some are waiting for the sheriff of the court to knock on their doors as their debts pile up.
Others have walked away to find a job elsewhere as they no longer trust the Eastern Cape health department to pay up.
The nurses alleged that many health-care workers who had died or resigned were still being paid by the department, raising further questions about budget constraints.
However, provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo denied there were “ghost workers” in the provincial authority.
“The system [used to pay salaries] is linked to home affairs.
“Therefore, when a death is registered it is automatically flagged and the person cannot receive a payment.”
On the issue of the contracts possibly being extended, he said: “It is still being discussed internally.
“There is a shortage in the department but the budget is an issue.”