Financial Mail reports that as Covid-19 cases began to spike in the Eastern Cape, the state-run Livingstone Hospital became the site of a trade union-led laundry war.  

The academic hospital in Port Elizabeth is the designated primary site for provincial Covid-19 patients and by Monday had 26 coronavirus patients.  But last week the hospital was a mess, with litter strewn across the corridors.  The casualty ward had to be closed in the middle of the week, as blood remained uncleaned on the floor.  This was because of a protest by the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), which represents hospital cleaners, kitchen staff and porters, about the non-payment of overtime allowances.  They refused to wash laundry and on Saturday tensions ratcheted up when strikers blocked the entrance to the hospital.  Effectively, the action amounted to shutting down the hospital, since patients could not be operated on or treated without clean sheets or surgical gowns.  Doctors spoke of their concern at the lack of intervention by authorities to address the dispute.  However, Nehawu’s Miki Jaceni advised on Saturday that the provincial authorities had promised in writing to pay the overtime allowances.  As a result, the union members began to clean up blood and litter, which allowed the casualty ward to reopen.  On Sunday, the hospital appeared calm as the union members went back to work.  But, provincial government spokesman Sizwe Kupelo downplayed the strike, saying there had been “sporadic” labour disputes and that the “linen issues” was being addressed.  Kupelo also denied the claim that there was a shortage of personal protective equipment.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Katharine Child at BusinessLive

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