Durban - Two men, believed to be striking hospital workers, were killed and a security guard wounded in a shoot-out at Durban’s King Edward VIII Hospital on Wednesday.
A nurse was also assaulted, but it was not clear how this was related to the early morning shootings, which have been linked to a continuing strike by outsourced cleaners and security guards at public hospitals in the city.
According to police, a former security guard and two cleaners attacked a security guard at the Umbilo hospital’s Gate 4, shooting him in the foot.
Guards returned fire, killing one of the three.
They then chased the remaining two, killing one and arresting a third, said police.
Police spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane, said the body of one of the men was found at the hospital while another was spotted by a passer-by, at the nearby Congella Park sports field, who alerted police.
They were aged 25 and 45.
“One of the deceased was found in possession of an unlicensed firearm,” said Zwane.
A third man, aged 25, was apprehended by security guards.
The man faces charges of attempted murder for the shooting of the security guard, who was treated at the hospital’s trauma unit. Umbilo police were investigating two counts of murder.
The Department of Health said on Wednesday that the nurse was assaulted while she was walking from the matron’s office to the transport department.
Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo condemned the “fatal act of violence” and said it was alleged the “intruders” were part of the group of aggrieved people employed by outsourced security companies.
Dhlomo praised the hospital security guards for being alert.
Moses Tsotetsi, national general secretary of the South African Public Service Union (Sapsu), who was in KwaZulu-Natal, said private security guards contracted to the hospital had killed the men, who were “at the forefront of the workers’ struggle”.
“They were shot dead simply because they were leading the protests for workers to be directly employed by the department rather than companies contracted.
“It is clear that these capitalist company owners will do everything in their power to protect their business interests, even go outside the law.”
He offered the union’s condolences to the families of the deceased.
Tsotetsi said they were considering bringing in a private investigator to probe the shootings independently.
“We won’t tolerate the killing of workers. These workers were killed for no other reason than that they were at the forefront of the protests against outsourcing. This is a tactic to frighten workers.
“We are also meeting with our legal team and gathering all the facts around this matter.”
Dhlomo called the shooting, “very unfortunate and unnecessary”. “We also wish to call upon law enforcement authorities to work to ensure that people who break the law, or those behind acts of sabotage, are apprehended and made to face the full might of the law.”
The Daily News reported on Friday that armed guards were manning the entrances of King Dinuzulu Hospital in Durban where a worker was attacked and the treatment of patients was delayed by striking workers demanding to be in-sourced.
The attack at the Sydenham hospital came after weeks of protest at five public hospitals in Durban as general workers - mainly security guards, cleaners and kitchen staff - demanded to be employed directly by the Department of Health, rather than through contractors.
Zwane said the man arrested was expected to appear in court soon.
Daily News