Illegal Eastern Cape health strike under the spotlight in Bhisho today

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The illegal strike by ambulance personnel in various parts of the Eastern Cape will come under the spotlight at a meeting of the health portfolio committee in Bhisho on Tuesday.

Democratic Alliance MPL, John Cupido, says he will be seeking answers from MEC Sicelo Qobana.

Ambulance personnel went on strike in East London on Monday and in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, demanding that the Department pay outstanding monies for housing allowances, danger and other pay as well as performance-related payments.

Cupido says the situation needs to be nipped in the bud.

"If we have the emergency medical services that are on strike that means that patients aren't being transported to the hospitals. It literally means that people could die and we have also heard that the strikers have been throwing stones at passing vehicles, so it is something that needs to be dealth with immediately. The EC health department has allowed the situation to get like this, and they now have to deal with it" Cupido said.

Health Department spokesperson, Siyanda Manana, says the MEC has established a team to deal with the payment issue.

He says Qobana has given an undertaking that all outstanding payments will be made.

Manana says that R191m has been allocated for the back payments but he says the MEC will go to the provincial cabinet to plead for more funds to pay those employees left out of the first tranche payments.