A community hospital and a number of clinics have been closed after nurses were chased out of them by protesting taxi drivers in Gqeberha.
Patients at the Motherwell Community Health Centre have been left unattended, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said yesterday.
The chaos erupted despite a fragile peace agreement reached during talks between Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Nqaba Bhanga and striking taxi drivers.
The provincial health department said the Covid-19 vaccination programme ground to a halt due to the strike action. Department’s spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said: “This impacts on the quality of services that people receive and where clinics are still open, people will experience longer than usual waiting periods”.
“These disruptions are further adding delays to the vaccination programme while it is in full swing, with the provincial government trying to ensure as many people as possible are inoculated,” said Kupelo.
Nehawu provincial secretary Mlu Ncapayi said their members and workers at the Motherwell centre were forcibly removed from their workstations by the protesters.
The offices of the South African Social Security Agency and Department of Social Development also had to close their doors. Ncapayi said the situation was concerning because these offices served the elderly, children and the disabled. He also called for arrests to be made “as disruption [of] healthcare services can be a life or death situation.”
“We believe that people have a right to strike or register their dissatisfaction, but the criminal and violent activities which include destroying community infrastructure and attacking members of the community and our members is unacceptable and must be strongly condemned,” said Ncapayi.
On Wednesday night a blaze destroyed eight buses, worth R12 million, belonging to the Algoa Bus Company at the firm’s Motherwell depot.