Public healthcare workers are living in fear as criminals wage a war of robbery and assault on them, with attacks escalating – and even demands for “protection fees” compounding their stresses, reports TimesLIVE.
According to the Health Department, 420 staff were robbed, assaulted or asked to pay a protection fee between 2019 and November last year, most of them being in the Western Cape, followed by the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Last week, an Eastern Cape nurse and her colleague were held at gunpoint outside a school where they were conducting a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign, and robbed of their phones and rental car.
“We heard a knock on the car window,” said the 49-year-old nurse from a community health centre in Gqeberha, “and when I looked up, they were pointing guns at us. I will never forget the look in their eyes.”
She said the ordeal brought back memories of a similar incident she experienced in 2023.
Another nurse in Gqeberha said she and her colleagues had been victims of multiple armed robberies.
“Every time there is gunfire in the area, we know the thugs will come running to the clinic for us to treat their wounds,” said the 39-year-old, who works at the Joe Slovo Clinic.
“In May last year, five men stormed the clinic and took our phones and laptops. Three months later they came again, fired a shot inside the clinic and took our phones. This time I gave them the government-issued phone, but they demanded my own too. I told them I had left it at home, silently praying it wouldn’t ring,” she said.
The incidents left staff traumatised. “We’re scared to go to work because we don’t know if we will make it home alive.”
Recently, nurses at Rosedale Clinic in Kariega refused to work after a man who had been shot during a gang shootout ran into the clinic seeking help. One of the nurses said the decision to close was about survival.
“There are so many gangs here … on that day we had to duck stray bullets.”
The clinic has been closed indefinitely, after escalating gang-related violence in the area.
Eastern Cape Health spokesperson Siyanda Manana said crime in public health facilities was “a matter of grave concern”, and that after the closure of Rosedale, staff were all deeply shaken and felt unsafe.
He said the department would continue engaging with key stakeholders, including the police, clinic committees and ward councillors, to address safety concerns.
In August last year, local crime forced an ophthalmology practice in Mthatha to close, and in Limpopo, the 24-hour Chuene Clinic was closed for three weeks after two nurses were robbed and allegedly raped.
“The clinic is closed on weekends now, but we still fear for our lives. We only work Monday to Friday. The Health Department has since upgraded security,” said one of the nurses.
Snowball effect
Crime also has a devastating impact on patients, especially those on chronic medication and elderly people, when clinics close because of safety issues.
The family of Shawn Macdonald, a chronic mental health patient, said he became violent when he was unable to take his prescribed medication for two months after Rosedale Clinic closed.
Speaking on behalf of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa, Veli Sinqana said crime was affecting service delivery, with nurses terrified and some quitting their jobs altogether because of security threats.
“Last week a vehicle belonging to health workers at Park Centre Clinic was vandalised,” he said, added that security needed to be strengthened and regular police patrols initiated around clinics.
Prof Alex van den Heever, chair of social security systems administration and management studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, said it was unacceptable for public health staff and patients to feel unsafe in government-run facilities.
“It appears that security contracts are poorly managed and may, in many instances, be irregular. The weaknesses in these arrangements are systemically linked to the general governance failures in most of our provincial health departments. Technical recommendations are largely futile when the political will to act in the public interest does not exist,” he said.
National Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale said healthcare facilities were not immune from criminal activity as they formed part of the wider community.
He said security measures were intelligence-driven and the department had increased protection in areas declared crime hotspots to safeguard staff, patients, and infrastructure.
“But the involvement of local community structures and stakeholders, including neighbourhood watches, traditional leaders and rural safety forums, is paramount,” he added.
The South African Medical Association (Sama) has condemned the escalating acts of violence against medical practitioners and other staff. “The impact … on the sector is severe and far-reaching,” it said in a statement.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Call for security at 24-hour clinics to be in-sourced
Night shift nurses raped at Limpopo clinic
Union highlights ‘dismal’ security at Eastern Cape hospitals
Nurses union threatens legal action over security concerns