Security guards at Livingstone Tertiary Hospital in Gqeberha and other hospitals and clinics in the Eastern Cape have not been paid after the Department of Health failed to pay contractors.
Security companies contracted to the Eastern Cape Department of Health could not pay guards this month.
The cash-strapped department has been in trouble with security contractors stationed at clinics and hospitals in the Eastern Cape since January.
Earlier this year GroundUp reported that Xhobani Security Services could not pay salaries. The department owes Xhobani about R3-million. Last week, managers at Silver Solutions informed hundreds of security guards that their salaries would be paid late this month. The guards are stationed at clinics and hospitals in Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, Queenstown and in the King Williams town area.
GroundUp visited Korsten Primary Healthcare Clinic premises, which also houses the Livingstone Tertiary Hospital in Gqeberha.
Security guard Elbridge Swarts is a father of four and is worried about what will happen to his family over the long Easter weekend. “My family is angry, and so am I… Why must I be nice? I must pay R1,200 rent per month, transport for this month, and one of my sons is staying in a hostel that needs to be paid too,” he said.
“If I had been informed in time, I would have made arrangements … It’s Easter weekend and it’s going to be a bleak one.”
Department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo told GroundUp that payments to service providers, including the security companies, would start next month.
The Private Sector Workers Trade Union (PSWTU) spokesperson Malibongwe Kayiyana said the union would lodge a dispute with the department at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
He said the PSWTU would fight to have the guards paid before mid-April. “There are about 1,000 guards at Eastern Cape government institutions that have not been paid. We are taking the department to the CCMA,” he said.
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Microwave
Y\’know, I could have sworn South Africa had apartheid.
Is this the Mandela Effect?
Wiccan Thunder
So I\’m real good friends with this guy named Juan Ted. Now, Juan is a pretty incredible guy. He can steal ANYTHING he wants to. Literally anything. It could be the shirt off your back, the wallet in your pocket, or I\’m even sure he\’d find a way to steal your house (And your spouse too). So anyway, one day Juan and I are sitting around watching TV, and they announced that the hope diamond will not be on display anymore and is now getting moved to an undisclosed location. So as we hear this, Juan says \”I\’m gonna steal it\”. Now I know how good Juan is at this kind of stuff, so I just tell him good luck and he goes on his way. Eventually he narrows his search down to a small cave in South Africa. When Juan gets there, he doesn\’t see any guards or anything outside the cave, so he just walks in assuming he was wrong about where the diamond was. He wanders around for a while until he sees a long lit hallway with the hope diamond at the end of it. Confident in his abilities, he strolls over to the diamond and picks it up before realizing its a trap! Suddenly, red lights flashed, armed men came running out, sirens went off. You could hear one of the men say under his breath \”We finally caught Juan Ted.\” But Juan, being the best thief in the world, said \”Not quite. On the count of three, I will disappear.\” As the men looked around confused, Juan began to count. \”Uno. Dos.\” And he disappeared without a tres.