By Kwanele Sibiya | 2024-04-26

Nurses and other members of the medical staff at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital have downed their tools over delayed payment of salaries for the month of April.

The staff resolved to down tools on Wednesday and camped by the entrance of the hospital, leaving patients vulnerable after management failed to pay them their salaries for the month on time. They have vowed that they will not resume their duties until their salaries were paid in full. “We will not resume our duties until notification signifying that our salaries have been paid,” said one of the disgruntled staff members.   

Initially, the medical staff were supposed to receive their salaries on Tuesday (April 23, 2024), which is their normal payday. However, instead of receiving their salaries, they were furnished with a memorandum shortly after they took a resolution to down tools, informing them that their salaries would be paid by end of business on Wednesday, which ended up not happening. “The normal pay date for salaries is 23rd of each month depending on the closest earlier working day. Therefore, salaries for April 2024 should have been paid by close of business yesterday (Tuesday), however, this has not been possible because the funds have not yet been released,” read the memorandum in part. According to the memorandum, the institution had been advised that the subvention for the April salaries would be in the, Eswatini Nazarene Health Institutions (ENHI's) bank account by close of business on Wednesday.

According to one of the medical staff members, who chose to comment on condition of anonymity, they were informed last week in an impromptu meeting that their salaries would be delayed.

However, they were unsuccessful in ascertaining what might have contributed to the delay of their salaries, with staff not satisfied with the institution’s response.

“We stormed out of the meeting while the prayer session was ongoing since we were irked by such kind of  treatment,” said the distraught medical staff member.  According to the medical staff what added salt to their wound was that whilst they were expecting their salaries to be paid, they were furnished with a memorandum on Wednesday, informing them that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)  Mazwi Mavuso was going to be away from work and that the Senior Medical Officer Dr Raymond  Bitchong was going to stand in for him.

This memorandum, however, did not sit well with the medical staff as they questioned how the CEO could just up and leave at a very critical moment, leaving them in such a desperate situation.

The medical staff continued with their go-slow, with only those that felt like attending to patients doing so.

They mentioned that if they did not receive their salaries today, they would engage a on a total shutdown, together with all the other workers, including the support staff.  An effort to obtain a comment from the CEO was made, however, his cellphone rang unanswered.  A questionnaire sent to him on Wednesday had still not been responded to by the time of compiling this report. An effort to contact the CEO was made yesterday afternoon to make a follow-up on the questionnaire, however, his cellphone was not available on the mobile network.

Senior Medical Staff  Officer at RFM, Dr Raymond Bitchong was contacted and he politely stated that the CEO was the only one mandated to give a comment on behalf of the hospital. 

By 4pm yesterday, the medical staff had still not received their salaries.

 

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