Sitore security guards unsure of hospital contract

SECURITY guards working for Sitore Security Services at the Windhoek Central Hospital were by Friday still not sure whether they should go on duty, after the health ministry reportedly cancelled the company’s contract.

The guards were seen milling around the hospital grounds and some were reportedly chased away by police officers. Ministry of Health and Social Services Permanent Secretary Andrew Ndishishi on Friday said the security company had been given two months’ notice that its contract would be cancelled by the end of July. He said the Namibian Police would guard the hospital until the Tender Board awards a tender to another security company. Ndishishi said Sitore’s contract was terminated because large-scale theft of toilet paper, blankets and food, and vandalism of State property, continued right under the noses of the security guards. ‘This is all nonsense,’ said the second in command at Sitore, Rachel Buys, who claimed that the ministry had not given the company a termination letter. ‘We do not know how the contract has been cancelled. The ministry did not give any notification. We received a letter to say that the ministry would go to the Tender Board and that the contract will be stopped, but we have no proof that the contract has been terminated,’ Buys said. She said some Sitore security guards remained on the hospital grounds because they wanted proof that the contract has been cancelled.