Disgruntled security guards protest outside Chatsworth hospital

Dozens of Mafoko Security Patrols workers whose month-to-month contract was terminated by RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, Durban, have been picketing, saying they have not been paid what's due to them.

The guards are demanding to be remunerated after the company allegedly failed to pay them.

Siyavonga Sithole said: “We have become doubting Thomases as the hospital had failed to do what it was supposed to do.”

He said their woes have been long-standing and the hospital was aware of the challenges they faced but had failed to act.

“The hospital knew that the company had flouted some of the regulations in terms of our payment structure. There is a government-gazetted law which prescribes that we be paid R24 an hour, but this was never the case. What the hospital used to tell us was that it was hamstrung,” said Sithole.

Sithole said there were people who had been left in limbo as debit orders had depleted their bank balances.

“There was no need for this to happen. All these people here met their end of the bargain but never received their money. All our life covers and policies have not been paid.”

Nokuthula Cebekhulu, 40, said she has had to beg for food reserved for the hospital patients as she had not been paid.

“I am a mother of four. You can imagine the headache I have been going through,” she said.

Her colleague, Martin Siphoko, accused the company of not putting aside money in a provident fund scheme.

“It's difficult because I have children and rent to pay,” said Siphoko.

Health department spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa said: “After being made aware of the situation, the department immediately put in place a security contingency plan which ensured that the safety of the building, staff and patients was not compromised.”

Maphisa refuted claims that the company had not been paid by the department: “It's untrue. The reasons for the alleged nonpayment of staff are known to the company. The department has terminated the security contract and begun a process that will culminate with the appointment of a new service provider”

Company director Lebo Nare told TimesLIVE the workers would be paid on or before July 14.

“The contract we had was month to month. The department did not renew for a month-to-month contract when our workers started disrupting operations at some of the hospitals.”

He added that the guards had also refused to engage the employers directly and allegedly abandoned the site.

“The employee contracts were also based on the client contract on a month-to-month basis and had also not been renewed,” he said.

Nehawu's regional secretary in eThekwini, Prince Mthalane, said the issue necessitated an overhaul of outsourcing security services at health institutions.

“Victimisation is a long-standing issue. Security is a function of the hospital and thus it should be insourced,” said Mthalane.

He said the stand-off was not exclusive to RK Khan Hospital, as Stanger Hospital was faced with the same problem.

TimesLIVE