SowetanLive reports that nurses working at special schools in Gauteng feel overworked, undermined and underpaid.  They are employed by the provincial education department and work as healthcare givers to pupils while they are at school.  

The role played by the nurses depends on the needs of pupils at those schools.  “We administer medication to the pupils daily, attend to any injuries that they might have and also refer them for further medical attention should there be a need to do,” one nurse explained.  Democratic Nursing Association of SA’s (Denosa’s) Mamakgadi Kgonodi said there had been a long and ongoing dispute between themselves and the education department.  She said their members were not remunerated fairly and added that nurses at special needs schools were “not even receiving their annual performance bonuses like other employees because no-one is monitoring their performances.”  Kgonodi indicated that the union had been asking for a meeting with the department for years, but no response had been forthcoming.  Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department’s allocation of nurses to special schools was not driven by the pupil numbers.  He added that the department was currently processing the outstanding grade progression payments to all qualifying employees.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Belinda Pheto at SowetanLive

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