A fed-up Pietermaritzburg woman, owed millions by the provincial Department of Health, used a bus to block the entrance to Townhill Hospital on Monday, triggering a tense stand-off with armed security.
Yandisa Mbulawa, who owns a company that provides accommodation to Department of Health staff, said she had been left with no option after repeated and failed attempts to secure payment.
Her protest, which disrupted hospital operations and created chaos, was aimed at forcing a meeting with the Health Department’s infrastructure head, she told The Witness.
Armed private security guards were brought in by the department to control vehicle access to the property, but a hospital employee described the situation as chaotic.
“We were stuck for more than an hour because of the commotion …. We understand that these people wanted to meet the chief director for infrastructure for non-payment of services.”
Mbulawa said the protest was a last resort after months of frustration.
“By 2023, I had six sites that I was renting out to the department, but it would take them up to seven months to process payments and I’d have issues with my suppliers.
“It has affected my trucking business… I had to sell some of them just to settle or pay part of my debts.”
Later, she said efforts to communicate with the department had failed, and that the protest with the bus “was fruitless because they were threatening arrest, so we left without talking to the chief director for infrastructure”.
Department of Health spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa said a response would be released in due course.
The Witness article – Desperate for payment, woman blocks hospital entrance in PMB (Open access)
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