Canaan Mdletshe

Canaan Mdletshe

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union in the Harry Gwala region (Pietermaritzburg) has called for the suspension of Howick's Umgeni Hospital official, whom it has accused of using state vehicles to campaign for Cope in Pietermaritzburg and Howick.

The official has been identified as Farida Ismail, a community health worker.

Nehawu regional secretary Khaye Nkwanyana said: "We have been informed that Ismail takes a hospital car in the pretext of doing her work.

"But what she does is actually load Cope posters and her team who help her to put them up."

He said immediately after hearing of the allegations, the union wrote to the head of department of health to investigate the matter.

"We have written to the HOD to suspend this official pending the outcome of the investigation. We believe it is not up to standard for any public servant to use state resources for party politics. We would have done the same had such allegations been levelled against our member," said Nkwanyana.

Acting HOD Yoliswa Mbele said she was not aware of the allegations as she was not in the office for two days last week.

"I was off sick, so I would not know if there has been any correspondence in that regard," said Mbele.

Provincial department of health spokesperson, Leon Mbangwa, said they will investigate.

"If the letter has indeed been sent to us, we will investigate because we deem the abuse of resources by officials as misconduct," he said.

Nkwanyana said if Mbele did not respond to their correspondence, they would take the matter up with Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni.