Daily News reports that two men, believed to be striking hospital workers, were killed and a security guard was wounded in a shoot-out at Durban’s King Edward VIII Hospital on Wednesday.  

A nurse was also assaulted, but it was not clear how this was related to the early morning shootings, which have been linked to a continuing strike by outsourced cleaners and security guards at public hospitals in the city.  According to police, a former security guard and two cleaners attacked a security guard at the hospital’s Gate 4, shooting him in the foot.  Guards returned fire, killing one of the three.  They then chased the remaining two, killing one and arresting a third.  Moses Tsotetsi of the SA Public Service Union (Sapsu) said private security guards contracted to the hospital had killed the men, who were “shot dead simply because they were leading the protests for workers to be directly employed by the department rather than companies contracted.”

• Read this report by Nosipho Mngoma in full at Daily News

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