NEHAWU KwaZulu-Natal on the disobeying of Covid-19 regulations at the Pixley ka Seme Hospital
24 March 2021
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) in the province of KwaZulu-Natal condemns the disobeying of COVID-19 regulations at the Pixley ka Seme Hospital yesterday.
Nursing graduates were called to the hospital to conduct entry assessments. Only 250 graduates were invited, however, more than 1000 showed up and they were seated in a small venue. This is against the regulations of Alert Level 1 of the COVID-19 lockdown which clearly states that “the maximum number of people allowed at any gathering is 100 people indoors or 250 people outdoors. Where the venue is too small to accommodate these numbers with appropriate social distancing, then no more than 50 per cent of the capacity of the venue may be used”
There was no social distancing in the venue and because of overcrowding there was a stampede as all graduates wanted to be attended to. Such events have a huge potential to become super spreader events which will lead to a spike in COVID-19 transmissions. In this regard, we condemn the hospital and Department of Health for poor planning which puts at risk the lives of the graduates and their families. As NEHAWU in the province, we call on the department to plan better next time and ensure that such occurrences are a thing of the past.
It is worth to noting that the coronavirus pandemic is still with us as a society, although infections having declined in the past few weeks, we are aware that a third wave is presumably imminent and possible as we approach the cold winter season. With the slow pace of accessing vaccines and not having yet reached herd immunity, it would be advisable that government and any other organization calculates its activities to avoid such situations which could lead to mass gatherings and/or attract uncontrolled large crowds of people.
We call upon the Department of Health in the province to investigate the real cause of such negligence and ensure that the recruitment processes do not create danger to our desperate society which is reeling in joblessness and poverty. It is regrettable for the department to not have anticipated such a possibility as it has in the near past conducted such recruitment and it is well known that large numbers of people showed up to try and get selected for vacancies.
The scenes of yesterday indicate clearly the economic deficiencies of a capitalist system which has proven over the last century to be unable to sustain itself. The economy is bleeding jobs and the added corruption in government and SOEs has rendered the state incapable of creating enough jobs to employ its citizens. The fact that thousands of people turn up for only 250 invited participants is an indication of the desperateness of our people to be employed in order to fend for themselves.
We also call on the Premier and his cabinet to convene a special summit to look into job creation both in the public and private sectors as an apex priority of the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The provincial government must also prioritize filling of vacant funded posts especially in critical departments such as health, education and social welfare. Such recruitment processes should be planned and coordinated within safety conditions and the dignity of our unemployed graduates should be preserved at all material times. Government should deal with corruption, incompetent management and maladministration in order to be efficient in service delivery.
Issued by Ayanda Zulu, Provincial Secretary, NEHAWU KZN, 24 March 2021
