Only critical patients will be attended to in public hospitals in the Ehlanzeni region due to the ongoing protests by the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).

The provincial spokesperson for the Department of Health, Dumisani Malamule, said most of the hospitals across the province are working with skeleton staff. “We would like to advise our patients to avoid going to the hospital unless they are critically ill. In some of the hospitals, only the emergency staff were allowed to go to work to assist those who needed emergency assistance,” he said.

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Malamule said only patients who require emergency operations will be assisted.

Many patients are already frustrated by the protests since they cannot get their medication or go for their routine check-ups. Some were supposed to have undergone surgeries and had been on the waiting list; they must now wait some time longer.

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According to Nehawu’s president, Mike Shingane, the aim of the protest was to demand an increase in salaries for government workers, for vacant posts to be filled, for civil servants to be provided with housing subsidies, and for their children to receive bursaries. “We demand a 10% increase, because anything less than the inflation rates is not actually a salary increase,” he stated.