File image: Health workers assisting a patient.on Wednesday morning, protesting against the decision not to renew temporary nursing posts.
The Department says it cannot afford to renew all eight-thousand temporary posts created at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.The job terminations are expected to start taking effect at the end of March. The YNITU’s General Secretary ,Lerato Mthunzi says they plan to meet on Wednesday morning in Johannesburg and to march to the Department of Health.
“Our focus is on saving jobs of the COVID-19 heroes. Their contracts are being threatened to be terminated. The nurses that we have trained for the past four years are also being let go,” says Mthunzi.The Department of Health is also threatening to let go of the support staff, so you can imagine the dent the loss of those jobs is going to create in a healthcare system that is in a serious crisis,” adds Mthunzi.