“You cannot go in. We are not accepting any patients. We are discharging everyone inside the hospital. There is no one here to help them.” 

This was the clear message to Maverick Citizen when we tried to peacefully enter the Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein on Wednesday morning. We arrived at closed doors and were kept from entering by two women who identified themselves as hospital staff. 

“Where are the doctors?” we asked. One of the women shrugged, waving at the large numbers of Nehawu protesters in the hospital parking lot by way of explanation. Nothing more was said, and we were asked to leave.   

This was despite plans for a “shutdown” intended for day three of the wage strike at Free State hospitals understood to have been averted by an urgent interdict issued by the Free State High Court in the early hours of the morning.

In a voice note circulated on WhatsApp by a member of the Free State leadership of Nehawu on Tuesday, the union requested its members to arrive early on Wednesday morning at the main gate of the National District Hospital in Bloemfontein, “wearing your T-shirts”. 

“The leadership has met and we agreed that tomorrow is [the] shutdown. We are closing the hospital … start at half past five in the morning. We need your support for the shutdown at National Hospital … Thank you, comrade.” 

A locked pharmacy at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein on 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

Empty admissions offices at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein, 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

Once the Free State Department of Health became aware of this, understanding that the planned action was intended for other health facilities in the province too, they spent hours in court to prevent such action from taking place, said Mondli Mvambi, the spokesperson for the department.  

“The application was submitted very late last night and the order was issued in the early hours … This order has helped the Free State Department of Health to prevent an intended total shutdown planned for today at the National District Hospital, Universitas and Pelonomi hospitals, in particular, and other facilities in the Free State.”

Mvambi said while the union had intended to intensify the strike on Wednesday, their intentions were “watered down” by the interdict. 

“Yes. They didn’t end up closing the National Hospital’s gates. But Nehawu’s singing and dancing at the premises is still intimidating and obstructive,” said Mvambi. 

While the order does not stop the strike, it explicitly prohibits anything which obstructs access to Free State health facilities, damage of any property at these facilities, as well as “molesting, assaulting, threatening or intimidating any members of staff, employees” and others. Acts of “incitement, taunting, encouraging, instigating and provoking” others to do the former, are also prohibited. 

The court “authorised and directed” the South African Police Service to remove from the premises anyone refusing to comply with the order. 

“The interdict sets parameters and implores everyone to act in accordance with the applicable rules of engagement during a strike,” said Mvambi.

Empty admissions offices at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein, 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

A patient on crutches making his way through the empty corridors of Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein, 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

A lone patient walking down an empty corridor at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein, 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

The neonatal unit at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein being locked with a chain from the inside to keep health workers and babies safe inside, 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

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‘The situation is tense’

Outside Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein on Wednesday morning, Nehawu protesters were singing loudly and dancing in the street, with several police members observing their activity and helping to direct traffic around the parade of protesters.  

“The situation is tense. The protesters are peacefully singing, but their mere presence at the gate is intimidation on its own,” remarked Mvambi.

A female doctor inside Pelonomi Hospital, who wouldn’t give her name, told Maverick Citizen that most of the many health workers absent from work were living in the townships. 

“They are threatened with ‘necklacing’ if they continue to work. And these are threats by people they know, who live with them in the township. Most of the health workers who have continued working live in the city,” she said. 

But, she added, they as doctors were bound by the Hippocratic Oath and were doing all they could to keep their patients alive and comfortable.

Police are stationed at several wards at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein, 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

Nehawu protesters singing and dancing at the intersection outside the entrance to Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein on 8 March 2023, while police direct traffic. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

Nehawu protesters standing and sitting outside Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein on 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw)

Nehawu protesters toyi-toying outside Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein on 8 March 2023. (Photo: Magdel Louw).

On Wednesday, staff shortages at Pelonomi Hospital were just as severe as the previous day. “Our members are simply practising their constitutional right to withdraw their labour power,” said Nehawu spokesperson Lwazi Nkolonzi.

Staff were said to have been chased from the Pelonomi Hospital pharmacy on Wednesday morning, and during our visit it was locked. The clinics on all floors of the hospital were barricaded with metal chains. 

This means that even though doctors were at work, they could not get access to any of the medication inside the clinics, another doctor complained. 

A urologist said that at around midnight some 10 women were in labour, with one midwife to assist. Doctors were receiving frantic phone calls to come and help. As all his surgeries were cancelled, he did what he could to replace bandages and perform routine duties that nurses usually fulfil. 

Mvambi confirmed that patients who are stable were being discharged from state hospitals, and elective surgeries were postponed because of a lack of staff to assist. 

“Only emergency operations are conducted. An assessment is being made on a case-by-case basis to determine admission or escalation to higher levels of care.” 

He expressed his disapproval of the dire conditions the strike was causing.

“We at the Free State health department feel that health workers should not be doing little or nothing to prevent death but should be at the forefront that promotes and protects life. We’re not against the workers and their demands, but concerned about the massive pain that is inflicted upon the people,” said Mvambi. 

Foster Mohale, the spokesperson for the National Department of Health, shared these sentiments. 

“The department condemns the violent and disruptive actions by members of Nehawu. Some of their actions are tantamount to attempted murder because they pose a serious threat to the lives of innocent patients…

“They must exercise their right to strike responsibly and allow others to exercise their right to go to work and save the lives of their patients.” DM/MC