Durban - SENIOR managers at Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg were humiliated and chased out of the hospital building on Tuesday by angry workers who stormed their offices and wrote threatening messages on the hospital’s walls.
The hospital’s chief executive and acting HR manager were frogmarched out of the hospital by the workers.
The two have been at loggerheads with the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) for some time over working conditions.
They have been accused of not listening to workers’ concerns, and the situation came to a head yesterday.
Nehawu secretary in the Harry Gwala region, Mazwi Ngubane, said they would not want the incident at Northdale to be repeated, but he said workers had had enough.
“Nehawu has lost many members during the Covid era, and that is something that has not sat well with us as a union,” he said.
Department of Health Head of department (HOD) Dr Sandile Tshabalala condemned the incident and said a high-level team of officials had since been deployed to the hospital.
In a statement, the department said: “The HOD has pleaded with all aggrieved workers to desist from taking the law into their own hands, and rather to follow established grievance management protocols so that the issues may be properly addressed.”
The Mercury