No jobs were promised, says Department of Health
The Department of Health has dismissed allegations that MEC Sasekani Manzini had promised permanent jobs to community healthcare workers (CHW) that were protesting outside the provincial government buildings on Friday.
These healthcare workers from various districts within the province were protesting on October 5 and 15, demanding to see Manzini.
The department’s spokesperson, Dumisani Malamule, said, “All appointments to permanent jobs are based on departmental policy on recruitment and selection.”
One of the protesters who chose to remain anonymous, said, “The MEC promised us permanent jobs more than two years ago and to our surprise we are still not absorbed permanently.
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On a daily basis we gather stats for Covid-19, work with the community and do our job, but we are not being treated fairly.
“We want Manzini to explain why there are so many people getting permanent jobs and not us. This is not right, and we are coming here for the second time, but we are being ignored.”
The protesters said that when they had gone to the complex on October 5, they submitted their demands and were told to return to get a response.
“We are here, but we cannot see the MEC anywhere, and we are not happy, because we had expected to get our response today. The police are chasing us away and we do not understand why this is happening, because we are supposed to be here.” According to Malamule, the CHW visited the department’s offices on Monday October 11 and 15 respectively.
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“On October 15, the CHW visited the department unannounced, and the acting deputy director general presented a response to their demands. Their main demand is permanent absorption, about which they were advised that the matter is currently handled by national and it is in the bargaining council.”
He added that the department was not aware of any CHW being shot at by the police. By the time of going to press, the newspaper had not received a response from the police.
