The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in KwaZulu-Natal will withdraw all its members in areas where their safety is no longer guaranteed as soon as all areas with red flag are collated and if nothing is done before end of this month.
This follows the hijacking, robbery and abandoning of three nurses in the bush while on their way from an outreach programme at Bhiliya a few days ago.
Their kombi was stopped by private car in the Ntambanana area in Empangeni and two hijackers got inside the kombi and robbed them of their belongings including cellphones, wallets and jewelry and drove them into a deep bush where they met two other hijackers who assisted in offloading the health equipment before dropping the nurses in the middle of the bush.
One of them almost got raped. Fellow nurses at Ngwelezane Hospital realized during knock-off time that the cars of these nurses were still parked at the facility, and upon trying to contact them on their cellphones, their phones were switched off.
Thugs are targeting departmental kombis and 4x4s. In the last two months alone, more than 11 vehicles have been hijacked. This particular area has lost no less than 18 vehicles to similar act this year alone.
The situation is not normal, and our fear is that more nurses will lose their lives if nothing is done to safeguard their safety. "We won't allow any nurse to die first before the seriousness of this issue is noticed and acted upon by the employer.
"We demand that the employer provide a safe working environment to our members with immediate effect.
Failure to do that by the end of 31st August 2016, we will be left with no option but to withdraw our members from all these facilities which are red-flagged.
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in KwaZulu-Natal
