Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) nurses are refusing to treat police officers, whom they accuse of shooting and injuring at least 30 nurses and killing a bystander, reports the BBC.
A government official has denied that nurses were shot in a pro-democracy rally last week, saying no live ammunition was used by security forces.
The Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SDNU), however, insists that last week, when health workers and other public sector employees went to deliver a petition to parliament demanding better living conditions, they were met with an “unprecedented show of force”. The union said apart from 30 nurses being injured when the police and army opened fire, a young bystander was killed as well.
The SDNU asked all nurses “in solidarity with the shot nurses not to treat a police official”, with union president Welcome Mdluli conceding this was contrary to their duties but, he told the BBC, union members were now scared of the police. He said they’d also received reports of police shooting healthcare staff inside hospitals.
He has asked the the health ministry for a guarantee that nurses will be safe before the treatment boycott will end.
A delegation from the Southern African Development Community is in talks with King Mswati III, as well as some involved in the pro-democracy movement.
The health workers have joined students, transport workers and others in a wave of protests calling for major constitutional reforms that will allow them to elect their own leaders.
BBC article – Eswatini protests: Nurses refuse to treat police after colleagues shot (Open access)
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