The South African military said Monday it had deployed its medics at several hospitals to minimise disruption during a public health care workers strike that government blames for several patient deaths.
“We received a request from the health minister to assist with the ongoing strike and to make sure services are ongoing and there is minimum disruption,” Phillip Makopo, spokesman for the health service branch of the South African National Defence Force, told AFP.
“The military healthcare practitioners were deployed on Wednesday … (last week) to hospitals as determined by the DOH and will remain deployed as may be required,” a SANDF statement said Monday.
Health Minister Joe Phaahla has said that at least four patients have died “in a manner that could be directly attributed to the strike”.
Last week, patients were prevented from accessing healthcare by striking workers who blocked entrances at various hospitals.
Phaahla told local media that troops would also help secure access to health facilities.
On Monday morning AFP reporters saw four soldiers positioned near the Thelle Mogoerane hospital, southeast of Johannesburg, while police patrolled the entrance.
Services at various public hospitals have been affected since nurses, cleaners and support staffers downed their tools last Monday demanding better wages.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) called the strike after wage negotiations with the government collapsed.
Unions are demanding a 10 percent pay hike amid rising living costs, but the government has offered just 4.7 percent.
On Monday a labour court ordered the industrial action be halted with immediate effect, but the strikers – dressed in red union colours – continued picketing and chanting outside some hospitals.
The strike is the latest of woes piling up on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government, which is battling an unprecedented electricity shortage.
In October workers at Transnet, state rail and port logistics firm, went on a weeks-long strike that badly crippled the economy of the continent’s most industrialised country.
