Siyabonga Sithole
A group of Covid-19 contract workers whose contracts were terminated by the Gauteng Department of Health in March have returned to the picket lines demanding their jobs back from Gauteng MEC of health, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi.
As they sang in front of the department's offices in Johannesburg this morning, some of the former employees said they demand their jobs from the MEC and will not move until their demands are met.
The protest comes after they had protested in March following news that the department would not be renewing their contracts due to budget constraints.
However, minister of health later announced that the provincial department workers would now retain the workers by end of March this year.
However, the leaders of the latest protest to the offices of the MEC in Johannesburg say four months later they are still unemployed and unable to make ends meet as they are not working.
Speaking to The Star, Mpho Khoza, who is one of the leaders said it was surprising that the department has not reinstated them in spite the minister's pronouncement that the budget allocation of R1.1 billion had been made available to ensure that all contract workers are retained.
"The reason we are ere today is because, we as Covid-19 contract workers contracted since the start of the pandemic in 2020. We were given 12 months contracts which was renewed again in 2021 to 2022.
This year, we went to inquire about our jobs and we were told to wait or the budget from the minister of finance who then tabled a budget and certain amount was allocated to Covid 19 contract workers.
To our understanding, we were supposed to be retained but we are not working currently. The MEC of health, made a statement where she said all Gauteng Covid-19 workers have been retained which was a lie because we are still not at work.
More than 2500 of us are not working as we were not retained. We are here to find out why we are not working and why only workers from seven hospitals were retained instead of all of us, Khoza said.
Another employee, Doreen Hlathi said this has affected most of the contract workers who find themselves unemployed as a result of the department failure to absorb them into the work force as they are unable to provide for their families and cannot access Covid-19 relief funds and other relief measures.
"We are suffering as we do not have any means of generating an income. We cant even apply for social development grants and RDP as we have active government employee numbers which bar us from receiving any other social assistance. Some of us owe school fees and cannot pay them as we unemployed," Hlathi said.
However, the Gauteng provincial health department disputes the assertion made by the workers saying, the minister had announced that it would only be able to renew contracts for only seven hospitals in the province which then excludes community-based healthcare facilities.
According to the department, hospitals that were able to retain staff include Charlotte Maxeke, Helen Joseph, Chris Hani Baragwanath and other tertiary health institutions. The department's provincial spokesperson, Kwara Kekana said the position has not changed as the budget constraints are still in place.
"Following discussion with Treasury to mitigate the impact of sudden departure of these contract workers, the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) will retain staff members who were recruited on temporary basis as part of COVID-19 response at all the central and tertiary hospitals when their contracts end at the end of March 2023.
The following hospitals will keep their staff: Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Dr George Mukhari Hospital, Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Kalafong Tertiary Hospital, Tembisa Hospital and Helen Joseph Hospital.
"The provincial Department would have loved to retain all temporary COVID-19 appointed staff, however, the current grant provided by the Gauteng Provincial Treasury to pay for compensation of temporary employees is inadequate to keep all workers in all regional and district hospitals when the COVID-19 contracts come to an end at the end of this month," Kekana said.