A racist comment made on Facebook landed a young HPCSA employee in hot water when she was arrested and charged with crimen injuria on Monday morning.
The woman, who cannot be named as she has not appeared in court, was arrested after she compared strikers to baboons and said they intimidated people with their grunting noises. She did not participate in the strike.
Warrant Officer Duane Lightfoot, of the Sunnyside police station, confirmed that she had been arrested and said she was still in custody. She will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
According to Mike Ntloko, chairman of National Education Health Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), employees of the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) embarked on a strike last week Friday for better pay and medical aid benefits. The strike is continuing.
Ntloko said he could not belive that one person could say this to another human being and he had personally opened the case against the employee.
“We want to prevent this (racism) from happening again and we want to make it clear that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated,” said Ntloko.
Bertha Peters-Scheepers, senior manager of PR and service delivery at HPCSA, said the organisation strongly condemned any form of racism.
In this specific matter, an employee was posting personal views on a social media network after hours, in her private capacity.
Peters-Scheepers said the HPCSA was currently investigating the matter and should the employee be found to have transgressed regulations, immediate action would be taken.
She added that the HPCSA had obtained a court interdict against the striking employees following acts of vandalism, sabotage, obstructing access to buildings, intimidation and assaults on customers.
These acts are also currently under investigation by members of the the SAPS.
Peters-Scheepers said the strike did not impact on the HPCSA’s ability to serve clients and that the number of strikers was fewer than 50 percent of the employees. - Pretoria News