The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) says its members are overworked due to understaffing, insufficient Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and medicines following a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations in the past two weeks.
Nehawu says hospitals in the Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape have run out of beds for patients. There has been growing concern about the number of infections in the Metro.
The province has more than 11 000 active cases with 80% in the metro.
The business chamber in the Eastern Cape is calling for its members to assist the government in curbing the infections:
He has said a second wave would be defined as a 20% increase in infections over a seven-day period:
Nehawu strike
Earlier, Nehawu announced that it will embark on a national strike on Thursday to demand the permanent employment of Community Health Workers across the nine provinces.
Nehawu General Secretary, Zola Saphetha, says the country’s overstretched healthcare system will not survive the second wave of COVID-19 infections.
“Our fact-finding mission report by our National Office Bearers (NOB’s) laid bare the shortcoming of our healthcare system and pointed out areas that need urgent attention. The report was shared with the National Department of Health and it would be very tragic if many people lose their lives because the department elected to ignore the recommendations made by the report. As you may recall that we have been engaging with the department on the basis of that report and we even shared that report with the World Health Organisation including the ILO (International Labour Organization) as a form of putting pressure on our government to listen.”
Saphetha says they will give the government seven days in which to accede to their demands failure to which they will resort to protests.
“The national office barriers led by the President will be deployed in those nine provinces will be leading the march as from Thursday because as you’ll know we have not been on the ground so we’ve taken the decision to lead from the front. We are not demanding what has been provided by Gauteng because Gauteng has employed and absorbed at level 2, we are demanding level 3. So currently at level 2, they are being paid R8 500 we looking to R12 500 that’s where level 3 is.”
Nehawu briefing on possible strike action:
