Nurses Stage Demo

Alvine Kapitako And Francis Xoagub

19 July 2011

Windhoek — Nurses staged demonstrations in Windhoek and Oshakati yesterday. The nurses, who are protesting against “low”salaries, later handed a petition to Prime Minister Nahas Angula in Windhoek.

Abner Shopati, a senior registered nurse and Secretary General of the Namibia Nurses Union (NANU), told Angula that the nurses wanted to express dissatisfaction at the way they are treated by Government through the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

He said the nurses are disappointed and de-motivated by the way Government, through the health ministry, treats them, adding that the nurses have lost confidence in that ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Kahijoro Kahuure, and the nursing management at the ministry’s head office.

He charged that Kahuure continues to employ Gloria Mubale in the position of National Nursing Manager while she has reached retirement age while others who reached retirement age were told to leave.

“We (nurses) consider such practice as corruption and we condemn it with the strongest terms it deserves,” Shopati said.

He said NANU was established under Article 21 (1) (e), which states that all persons have the right to freedom of association, which shall include freedom to form and join associations or unions, including trade unions and political parties.

“We as nurses of this country have established our own union NANU, under this article but you as our employer denied us this fundamental right,” Shopati said.

He added that there is a difference of N$17 000 in the salaries of a medical intern and a qualified registered nurse with more than 20 years working experience whereas a newly qualified medical doctor earns N$27 000 per month more than a qualified registered nurse with more than 20 years working experience.

“Is this really fair?” he queried. Another petition by Pharmacists and Pharmacists Assistants reads: “Pharmacists and pharmacists assistants need to be re-graded to a level that reflects their true appropriate value.”

The Prime Minister promised to send the petition to Dr Richard Kamwi and to request him to address the issues. Regarding salaries and grading, Angula said: “We are busy with that. It’s just a question of time. For the time being, your current salaries have been improved by 10 per cent,” he said.

Meanwhile, at least 70 nurses at the Oshakati Intermediate Hospital staged a peaceful demonstration yesterday morning as part of the national action called by NANU, demanding salaries and better benefits and safer conditions.

The placard-waving nurses who were on morning shift, at midday briefly marched from the hospital parking area to the adjacent shopping mall in Oshakati escorted by a handful of police officers.

Some of the placards called for the removal of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Kahijoro Kahuure, who reportedly refused to meet the nurses’ union representatives.

Some of the placards read ‘We want salaries’, It seems that nurses are not counted in this country’, ‘We are tired of small salarie’, ‘Viva NANU Viva!’, ‘Count nurses as professionals and not street beggars’.

Initially, the demonstrators at Oshakati intended to hand over a petition to the Oshana Regional Governor Clemens Kashuupulwa but he was not available to receive it.

“This was just our way of heeding the call of our union for a nationwide demonstration. We just wanted to make our point clear before returning to our patients” said a spokesperson of the nurses, Eva Velikos.

Although many nurses joined the demonstration, some were assigned to stay behind in the wards to attend to patients, she said, while others were simply reluctant to join the demonstration because of fear of dismissal.

The demonstration in Oshakati lasted less than half an hour. The demonstrations come at a time when the Ministry of Health and Social Services is launching the second round of the National Immunisation Days (NIDs).

Services at the hospitals were not disrupted.

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