Department spokesperson, Mondli Mvambi says the department was taken aback by the march, as it went ahead without notice to the department.

The OFM News team attended the march in the city centre where EMS personnel allege their urgent call for improved working conditions, salary increments, an answer to the years-long delay in payment of overtime work, and unfair dismissals have for the most part been ignored. While the group, represented by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) maintains their issues have remained unattended to. Mvambi is adamant this is untrue.

According to Mvambi, the department received a memorandum from the angry group earlier in 2019 and as a result, convened an engagement meeting on 17 April 2019. He says following this meeting, the department started “implementing the agreements reached with the group in earlier engagements”, contrary to allegations from the ground alleging otherwise. He says the issue of overtime payments that have been outstanding since 2013, has been sorted and all parties have been paid. He blames the delay on bureaucracy stating it took time to verify details around the overtime.

According to the spokesperson, “the department has filled all 136 identified EMS vacancies except for management positions which are yet to be filled. These vacancies covered the categories of Basic Life Support (BLS), Intermediate Life Support (ILS), and Emergency Care Technician (ECT). These posts were filled in consideration of the location and proximity to areas of work”.

The group has threatened to bring medical services in the province to a halt, should the provincial government not respond to their grievances within 14 working days. 

The protests come just days after an EMS crew was attacked while attending to a patient in Lusaka in Theunissen, mirroring other attacks seen across the country in 2019.

OFM News