Nurses continue to get threats, security increased

Monwabisi Goqwana, the Eastern Cape health MEC, has beefed up security at Zitulele Hospital at Mqanduli. Goqwana says a private security firm has been hired to protect the 21 nurses from KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo as they continue to receive threats from the members of the community and their peers. The community want their own people to be employed at the hospital.

The nurses allege that threats were made on their lives while on duty. Police had to be called in after a group of local residents and workers threatened to kill one of the nurses on Tuesday night.

Goqwana has put the blame on members of the community and pleaded with the nurses not to leave his department.

Most members of the community have condemned the acts of intimidation. They say they will find the culprits and make sure that they are brought to book.

Some of the distraught nurses say they have had awful experiences since they started at Zitulele Hospital in April this year. Health authorities say the hospital is one of the few in the province that has fully-fledged nurses.

Goqwana has granted the nurses a week's leave to rest with their families. Some say they doubt whether they will return.