“No jobs, no vote,” shouted disgruntled nurses who marched to the provincial health department in Pietermaritzburg.
Hundreds of nurses carried placards and handed over a memorandum demanding that unemployed nurses be employed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. Nurses from the Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (HOSPERSA) were part of the march.
The marchers said there were 15,000 unemployed nurses in KZN and 40,000 vacancies for nurses nationwide, according to a “study”.
But when GroundUp asked the provincial chairperson of HOSPERSA, Thamsanqa Zondi, the source of these figures, he said the figures were estimates and should not be used by the media. He said the union did not have a copy of the study.
Last year nurses marched three times demanding that the health department prioritise their demands.
United Nurses Forum president Bhekithemba Gumbi said nothing had changed. Quoting
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