Africa-Press – South-Africa. A group of job-seeking protesters has been evicted from the Tshwane health district offices after occupying the building illegally for two weeks, preventing workers from entering.
The eviction, through a court interdict, will pave the way for employees to return to their workstations.
On Friday, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted the Gauteng health department an order to remove the protesters.
The protesters were finally evicted on Saturday.
The group had illegally occupied the offices in the Pretoria CBD for almost two weeks.
As a result, at least 200 staff members have not been able to access the Fedsure premises in the inner city forcing them to work at other health department offices.
The district office services 77 clinics in Tshwane.
The department has welcomed the court order.
It said the unlawful occupation of district offices affected operations negatively.
The department added although the illegal occupation was reported to the police, despite several visits to the building, they were unable to remove the protesters.
The department then sought a court interdict against the protesters which was granted by Friday, 22 July for them to immediately vacate the offices and to stop intimidating or preventing employees from accessing the workplace.
It said it had previously embarked on an extensive consultative process which involved contract employees, unions, and the provincial treasury.
The department added the process, concluded in July, had led to the absorption of 8 619 community health workers who were on contract, into permanent posts.
“We have noted that since the appointments were effected, following the conclusion of the verification processes, the department started receiving requests from people claiming to have been CHWs [community health workers] at some point.”
The department extended its appreciation to the district employees for their patience during the illegal occupation.
It added it wanted to reassure them their safety remained a priority.
News24 previously reported the group of unknown protesters numbered about 40.
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