12 July 2023
Security guards picket outside the RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, Durban, on Tuesday. Photo: Tsoanelo Sefoloko
Security guards at the RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, Durban, have lost their jobs after participating in an unprotected strike. They are among 174 workers employed by Mafoko Security to guard R.K. Khan Hospital, Stanger Provincial Hospital and Murchison Hospital.
On Tuesday, the workers told GroundUp that they went on strike after the company did not pay their June salaries. They said their attempts to get satisfactory answers from the company were futile.
The workers said that while waiting for the boss to address them on 10 July, they saw that another security company had its guards at the hospital gate.
They were then told that Mafoko’s contract had been terminated. The company had a month-to-month contract agreement with the provincial health department.
Mathin Motete, a security guard, said they were paid R290 per day.
Another security guard Qiniso Ngcobo said she is worried how she will pay her rent this month because she told her landlord that they would be paid soon.
“I don’t know what I will do if she tells me to take my things and go. I borrow about R30 every day, and now I owe so many people,” said Ngcobo.
Mafoko CEO Lebo Nare said they had communicated at the start of June that their payment dates would change. “They don’t want to listen, which is why they went on an unprotected strike.”
He said there was a technical issue which delayed salary processing.
Nare said his hands were tied because they had a month to month contract with the provincial health department.
Spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health Ntokozo Maphisa said that as soon as they were alerted to the strike by the security guards, they hired another company to ensure that staff and patients were kept safe.
“The Department terminated the security contract and began a process that will culminate with the appointment of a new service provider,” said Maphisa.
The company has promised to pay workers by 15 July.