GQEBERHA – There is no end in sight for the battle between the Eastern Cape department of health and nurses who have been evicted from a building formerly used as a nurses home.
The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) took the matter to court after eviction notices were served on staff.
Hospersa argued that the department had previously agreed to accommodate nurses recruited from outside the province.
But when they wanted them out, proper notice was not given and no alternative housing was provided.
Thembisa Witbooi, of Hospersa’s labour relations, said the fight is not over despite there being a court order in their favour.
The court ruled that the evictions ought to be halted.
“While the ruling prevents further evictions, the fight is not over. At this present time, the ruling does not accommodate them but it assures those that are there because out of the 37, 31 are still in the premises and it was six that had left out of our members. So it does not at this present time compensate them because we have to go to the back to the courts and argue the case in that the department is responsible for those particular costs.
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“And it's quite strange because what we've said to the courts on Thursday is that we do not understand the exclusion of the nurses because if you're looking, the majority of nurses are women in particular and their rights have been violated and they have kids that they are staying with which are minor kids and they have been violated as the subject of the eviction.”
The department’s director of communications, Siyanda Manana said the accommodation was a temporary measure made because of covid 19. He said the nurses were expected to vacate the premises once their one‑year contracts ended as the housing was never intended to be permanent.
“We went to a very quick recruitment process, and then the nurses were part in that recruitment process. We then looked for accommodation to try and accommodate them. Remember, it was a contract for one year only. After the expiration of the contract, they were supposed to actually leave.
“When that contract terminated, we had arranged temporary accommodation because the situation was a little bit abnormal. We had not had anything like COVID before. So we then decided, let us try and see if we cannot temporarily house them at Livingston because that building used to be a nurse's home. And the people that were there are only supposed to be nurses that are in training, doctors that are in training, community health doctors. So there is nobody that we are giving accommodation to here in the Eastern Cape.”
The department has vowed to appeal the ruling saying they are not obligated to house, or find alternative housing for the nurses.