SOUTH African health unions demonstrated outside the Health Ministry in Pretoria on Friday demanding that the ANC government increase the health care budget and start a major recruitment drive so that there are more doctors and other health care workers in the country’s hospitals.
The South African Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu), the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) and COSATU say that they are hugely understaffed and often cannot perform their job safely.
They have raised concerns that there are over 1,000 qualified doctors that are currently unemployed as no hospital is willing to employ them.
Dr Cedric Sihlangu, general-secretary of Samatu, said: ‘It is a tragedy that the country had over 1,000 doctors who are sitting at home, with no prospects of securing employment.’
Sihlangu said considering that the government had a constitutional responsibility to ensure healthcare was provided to the population, it was not proper for communities to be stuck with hospitals and clinics that have no doctors.
He added: ‘So when you go to a hospital you are not being attended to by a doctor meaning your chances of dying are quite high.’
Sihlangu said the painful part about what was happening in public facilities was that the same people who were presiding over the healthcare systems themselves relied on private healthcare as they had medical aid.
‘So when they need to be checked they go to private hospitals and there they are guaranteed to see a doctor. In fact, they see specialists if they get a headache they get sent to see a neurologist, for chest pains they see a cardiologist.
‘However our people on the ground, who are the poor and marginalised, when they have to consult they have to wait five hours to see a doctor but more often than not there are none.’
Sihlangu said this march was in actual fact more about the poor and marginalised, and about raising issues affecting our communities in which the government was failing and something had to be done.
Zingiswa Losi, the president of Cosatu, said the party had decided to join in solidarity with Samatu and community doctors due to the number of cases they were finding within the healthcare system themselves.
Losi said they had called for National Health Insurance to be implemented which the government had agreed to but in the absence of having enough medical professionals in hospitals national healthcare becomes a dream that was simply sitting in the pipeline.
She said Covid-19 also showed the country how doctors were appreciated but also acknowledged the conditions they were working under.
‘We cannot have a country of over 50 million population and you have one doctor per 1,000 people.
‘We support the call made by doctors for government to fill all funded posts but also to ensure there is no hospital that is not blended with specialists.’
Losi said this was crucial as coming from the Covid-19 pandemic, people in South Africa had chronic illnesses, and mothers who gave birth to children with special needs.
Meanwhile, talks between members of the University of Cape Town Employees Union (CTEU) and management reached a deadlock on Thursday meaning that the unions members are set to take strike action.
The CTEU is the largest representative body at the university with about 1,200 members.
The union represents a wide range workers and includes administrative workers, technical officers, as well as managers and executive directors.
It is in effect the union for non-academic staff responsible for administration, technical work and management at the university.
According to the union, management is refusing to come to the table over several issues related to salary increases and is refusing to bargain with the union. The matter was heard at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Thursday.
This is the second time in two weeks that the union has had to refer a matter to the CCMA.
In a statement the CTEU said its concerns about management terminating its bargaining recognition agreement on 18th January.
The statement said: ‘This action by UCT, seeks to nullify the collective strength of staff to negotiate fair and reasonable pay increases and benefits.
The union’s Samuel Chetty added that the university left them with no option but to go to the CCMA after management failed to negotiate with them.
The UCT said that it had ‘extensive engagements’ with all unions last year on establishing a single bargaining unit for all Professional, Administrative Support & Service (PASS) staff rather than ‘multiple arrangements’, according to UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola.
He said that ‘this move does not in any way seek to bring to an end its long-standing relationship with the union’.
He added: ‘The university has similarly given notice to terminate its existing recognition agreements, as it relates only to the bargaining reforms, to other recognised unions representing PASS staff and all organisational rights are still in force.
‘In addition to the two matters lodged at the CCMA this month, the union also had several cases before the CCMA in 2022.
According to Chetty, this is ‘unprecedented’ in the union’s history.
‘The issue is that management has frustrated every effort the Employees’ Union has made for proposals and thwarted every proposal for negotiation in labour matters.
One of its cases before the CCMA was successfully negotiated in September last year.
Technical inspectors had asked for overtime pay and compensation for using their vehicles for work at the university. In a statement, the union said, ‘An agreement has been reached to ensure that Technical Inspectors are fairly remunerated and compensated for their time in service of the employer. The agreement is backdated to 1 June 2022.’
In another case over salary increase negotiations, the CCMA ruled in favour of UCT.
The university offered staff a five per cent increase but there was a dispute about a once-off payment of 2,100 Rands.
Chetty said the union also is dealing with the lack of promotion opportunities for Professional, Administrative Support & Service staff, a matter which remains unresolved.
This is despite other employees, such as academic staff and scientific officers, receiving promotions this year, Chetty said.
Members of the Academics’ Union at UCT are also set to down pens to strike for a higher salary increase. In a statement, this union said that UCT’s offer of 3 per cent for 2023 was ‘insulting and derisory’.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) academics’ union said it will not budge on its 6 per cent wage increase demand.
About 84 per cent of its members rejected the university’s 3 per cent salary increase and voted in favour of a three-day strike.
It’s the first time that strike action by UCT academics received so much support.
Talks between UCT management and its academics’ union have been ongoing since November 2022.
The union said the 3 per cent salary increase offered by the institution is an insult to its members.
It said it applied to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) last week Friday and it’s waiting for a certificate to strike this week.
The CCMA asked the two parties to meet for talks on Tuesday to see if they can’t find a solution.
But if talks fail and a strike certificate is granted, the union will have to give the university 48 hours’ notice of its intention to strike.
The looming strike comes as tertiary institutions prepare to re-open in February.
UCT management said it would like to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, postal workers are set to go on strike after the ANC government announced that the South African Post Office (SAPO) is to cut jobs and workers salaries by over 40 per cent in a bid to save money as it says it is in serious debt
Communications manager for SAPO Johan Kruger said: ‘Our considerations include cutting staff salaries by reducing the working week and a voluntary severance package process which is already under way.’
Aubrey Tshabalala Chairperson of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said that postal workers will not accept any job or wage cuts but are demanding a 15 per cent pay rise.