{"id":7951,"date":"2022-01-01T12:08:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T12:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged"},"modified":"2022-01-01T12:30:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T12:30:37","slug":"tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged","title":{"rendered":"T\u0161epong nurses\u2019 sacking, COSATU outraged"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has issued a solidarity statement expressing indignation towards the dismissal last week of 346 mostly specialist nurses at the country only tertiary healthcare facility, Queen \u2018Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) in Maseru.<\/p>\n<p>The nurses were fired with immediate effect on Friday, March 12, following a long-drawn-out dispute over salaries. The health workers had been on strike to press for salaries equivalent to their counterparts in government and other private institutions.<\/p>\n<p>The Lesotho Nurses Association (LNA) argues that the QMMH nurses are paid about M9 000 monthly, at least M4 000 less than their counterparts in other government-run hospitals, who reportedly pocket at least M13 000 each month.<\/p>\n<p>COSATU notes that while the strike was crippling the already ailing Lesotho health sector, which faced a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections after Christmas \u201cthe sackings will have a dire effect on the already strained healthcare system, filtering additional strain into bordering South Africa as well.<\/p>\n<p>Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lesotho\u2019s health system had struggled under high rates of tuberculosis, HIV, and AIDS-related illnesses.<\/p>\n<p>These expulsions will have a disastrous effect on the health system, given that Lesotho\u2019s hospitals were already understaffed,\u201d said the union\u2019s International Secretary, Sonia Mabunda-Kaziboni, in the statement issued yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>COSATU says this is an unacceptable and blatant ill-treatment of workers, and demands the nurses\u2019 immediate reinstatement. \u201cWorkers cannot lose their jobs and subsequently their livelihood because of demanding better salaries. The Federation condemns the Lesotho government for its disregard of the working people\u2019s right to be heard. \u201d<\/p>\n<p>They further we call on all \u201cour Comrades and friends in the region to offer solidarity and support to the dismissed workers and ensure that this employer does not undermine workers\u2019 right to refuse paltry salaries during these trying times. Dismissing them does not solve the problem.<\/p>\n<p>The statement follows hot on the heels of the Lesotho government\u2019s termination of its relationship with the T\u0161epong Consortium, engaged in a public private partnership (PPP) to rebuild the country\u2019s failing network of public health facilities.<\/p>\n<p>The separation was announced by health minister, Semano Sekatle in a media briefing on Wednesday afternoon. He said that the nursing staff that has recently been dismissed at the hospital would be reinstated.<\/p>\n<p>Sekatle added that the government will partner with other Basotho owned companies working at T\u0161epong to figure out a way forward to continue providing healthcare services to the public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government is working on ensuring all the health workers retrenched get their jobs back and also the government will engage in a discussion with Basotho companies working at T\u0161epong to find a way forward in offering Basotho good health services,\u201d the health minister added.<\/p>\n<p>The dismissal of the nursing staff at the hospital became the last straw in the uneasy relations between government, the hospital as well as its workforce.<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) on Monday also voiced extreme concern at the reckless conduct of the T\u0161epong management in handling the dispute, declaring its full support of its sister organisation in the country, the LNA, in calling for the implementation of a salary structure in Lesotho.<\/p>\n<p>This will bring labour peace and a positive environment for many nurses who are aggrieved.<\/p>\n<p>DENOSA called on the Netcare Group, which forms part of the conglomerate of companies running T\u0161epong, to do in Lesotho as it does in South Africa because its hospitals have a salary structure that is in place, warning that this will avert crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The QMMH project cost approximately US$100 million (over M1.5 billion) and is financed through a combination of commercial financing by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, a government capital contribution and private equity failing to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Opened in 2011, QMMH is run by the T\u0161epong Consortium and manages a health network that provides services to approximately 375 000 outpatients and 23 000 in-patients.<\/p>\n<p>The consortium is headed by South Africa\u2019s Netcare together with local investors and healthcare providers in an 18-year contract that commenced in February 2009.<\/p>\n<p>T\u0161epong designed, constructed, partially financed, and now operates this network of public health facilities that includes QMMH as well as three expanded primary health care clinics in Maseru.<\/p>\n<p>The consortium comprises five companies, namely Netcare Healthcare Group and Afri\u2019nnai of South Africa, and Excel Health, Women Investment, and D10 Investments of Lesotho.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has issued a solidarity statement expressing indignation towards the dismissal last week of 346 mostly specialist nurses at the country only tertiary healthcare facility, Queen \u2018Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) in Maseru. The nurses were fired with immediate effect on Friday, March 12, following a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,6,8,16],"tags":[233,246,1363,245],"class_list":["post-7951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-cosatu","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>T\u0161epong nurses\u2019 sacking, COSATU outraged - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has issued a solidarity statement expressing indignation towards the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"T\u0161epong nurses\u2019 sacking, COSATU outraged\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has issued a solidarity statement expressing indignation towards the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-01T12:08:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-01T12:30:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61d0494a8f403.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"959\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"618\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"T\u0161epong nurses\u2019 sacking, COSATU outraged\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-01T12:08:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-01T12:30:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged\"},\"wordCount\":744,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61d0494a8f403.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"COSATU\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tsepong-nurses-sacking-cosatu-outraged\",\"name\":\"T\u0161epong nurses\u2019 sacking, COSATU outraged - 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