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Victory for DENOSA as Free State acknowledges its mistake and offers to hire community service nurses
Media statement
Wednesday, 17 February 2016
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa congratulates student nurses in Free State, led by DENOSA Provincial Learner Movement, for standing up to voice their unhappiness about the manner in which HR and human capital issues are handled by Free State provincial government, particularly the hiring of nurses and absorption of community service nurses in the province.
DENOSA is proud of the outcome of the protest that student nurses embarked on outside the provincial health department office in Bophelo House in Bloemfontein on Monday, demanding the issuing of contracts for the 2016 community service nurses who had finished their studies in December 2015. The province undertook to issue more than 200 community service nurses with contracts by end of this week so that they could be placed in facilities where their service is needed the most.
DENOSA regards this as a victory for nurses and would like to encourage other nurses in other provinces to embark on similar action if their cries are to be heard and resolved.
“It looks like for nursing matters to be taken seriously in the country, nurses themselves are forced by circumstances to opt for a public protest for the whole world to see before their grievances are sincerely considered by provincial departments. This essentially renders formal negotiations a futile exercise as anything hardly gets achieved these days. Mind you, public protests or a strikes are the very last resort for workers,” says DENOSA President, Simon Hlungwani.
Severe shortage of nurses in facilities, shortage of and unrepaired equipment, lack of supply of medication and extension of some clinics to 24-hour service centres without increasing support and health personnel, as well as inadequate HR planning and budgeting are some of the complaints by nurses in the country, because all these shortages result in the public labeling nurses as lazy and as people not committed to their work.
Because of these very same challenges, DENOSA Eastern Cape will embark on a similar march to the provincial department of health in Bhisho tomorrow, calling for the fixing of health services in the province. We warn that failure to resolve matters as swiftly as they arise may lead to nurses getting frustrated and ending embarking upon protests even in other provinces.
DENOSA also feels that the Department of Health’s response to Monday’s march by nurses in Pretoria is trivializing the concerns that nurses are raising about the conditions that they are experiencing in the workplace. In response to the march, the Department said nurses must know the labour laws of the country. We agree that bargaining chambers represent both the employer and employees, but the Department of health is the custodian of health in the country including provision of a conducive environment for workers, and the matters that nurses are raising ought to be brought to the attention of the department so that they could be fixed by it.
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
For more information, contact:
Simon Hlungwani, DENOSA President.
Mobile: 079 501 4922
Or
Madithapo Masemola, DENOSA Acting General Secretary
Mobile: 082 551 6041
Website: www.denosa.org.za
Facebook: DENOSA National Page
Twitter: DENOSAORG
