Pretoria - Frail and elderly patients at Huis Davidtz Retirement Home in the city yesterday assumed the role of nurses and carers.
They got off their beds to wash dishes and sweep the floors as the unprotected strike by employees entered day two.
While they could not dispense daily chronic medication, they put on gloves, cleaned up and washed for others.
A patient with arthritis lay with a soiled nappy, which gave the room a strong smell, in addition to general uncleanliness.
The patient was among the more than 100 elderly at the troubled home left unattended while staff went on strike demanding contracts.
The employment contract matter dates back two decades; staff claimed they had worked for more than 20 years without contracts.
They also made allegations of racism, abuse of patients by management as well as underpayment.
It is the second time services have been disrupted this year.
Yesterday, there were only four volunteer staff nurses to look after patients, and they said they were barely coping.
There was a strong smell and
signs of filth throughout the facility.
“They have not bathed at all. One patient is helping the other. I’ve got a lot to do like cleaning, feeding them and I need to make sure that they have their medication.
“Some of the patients were washing dishes while others were sweeping the floor,” a nurse said.
In August last year, disgruntled nurses, volunteers, chefs and cleaners went on a three-day strike, led by the EFF. There had been another protest in March regarding the same issues.
One of the striking workers yesterday said they feared a tragedy similar to that of Life Esidimeni would repeat itself at the centre.
“We don’t want another Life Esidimeni incident here, but we also don’t have a choice because we want to see these issues resolved. The government is fully aware of what’s happening here, but no one wants to assist us; so we are not going back to work until we get the help we need.”
Social Development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza called for an urgent investigation into the home in August last year.
She asked for a full report with solid evidence on all allegations levelled against the centre, which had led to the strike and abandonment of the frail and elderly patients.
She visited the facility after reports of the chaos caused by striking workers reached her office. At the time, she said she could only come up with an action plan to resolve the issues once a report had been compiled.
The department could not be reached to give an update on the probe yesterday.
Mampuru Monamudi of the EFF said: “Our work is to just make sure that we force all the departments to come. Unfortunately, the corruption that is there is a chain that can’t be broken easily.
“No one seems interested to help the workers. We want these workers to be satisfied and all the issues must be resolved. So even if they strike for days we will still support them,” he said.