DURBAN - TOP management at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Phoenix have fled the building, apparently fearing for their lives.
This was after the acting chief executive, Dr Linda Sobekwa, and the human resources manager, Nokulunga Mthombeni, received threatening notes.
Earlier this month, Themba Zulu, the labour relations manager, was shot and is still recovering.
Days after the shooting, Sobekwa and Mthombeni found notes stuck under their office doors which read: “You are next.”
It is believed the management has been threatened due to an internal investigation involving members of the hospital security team accused of corruption.
National Health Education and Allied Workers’ Union spokesperson Bongani Vilakazi said the acting chief executive, human resources manager and labour relations manager were conducting an investigation into two hospital employees in the security department.
“What I have gathered from the provincial deputy secretary, Ndunakazi Phakama, who attended a meeting with the health department on Friday, was that there was an investigation into the security staff employed by the hospital. Employees were suspended pending further investigation, and verbal threats were made to the management.
“The chief executive raised issues regarding a contract awarded to the security company. The suspended employees were apparently being investigated for having a corrupt relationship with the new security company,” said Vilakazi.
He said the internal investigation would continue and asked the health department to intervene.
Chief executive of Clairwood Hospital, Njabulo Gwala, has been asked to fill in at Mahatma Gandhi. He will manage both hospitals.
Calvin Mathibeli, owner of the security company, said the allegations were “nonsense” and accused the hospital staff of an agenda.
He said when he was awarded the tender, staff from the hospital approached him to demand that he hire their “own people”. He said he refused and reported them to hospital management.
“My company has made a lot of arrests of staff stealing medicine. That’s what they don’t like about us. I am shocked by the allegations.”
Questions sent to the provincial health department had not been answered at the time of going to print.
Hospital board member Mervin Reddy said there had been eight acting chief executives in four years.