South Africa police fire at striking nurses

JOHANNESBURG – South African police yesterday fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of nurses taking part in a nationwide public workers’ strike over pay, wounding several, state radio reported.

Police also arrested 20 nurses in the incident at a hospital in the city of Durban, the radio said. It quoted police as saying the nurses were blocking entrances to the hospital.Several government buildings and hospitals were besieged by picketing public servants in KwaZulu-Natal province, the South African Press Association (Sapa) reported.Police and union leaders were not immediately available to comment on the reports.Sapa quoted a police spokesman as saying there were no shootings, only the arrests of 12 striking workers at Durban’s Addington Hospital.Since the start of the strike on Friday, tensions have risen between the government and public workers, increasing fears the mass action will cripple services and hurt South Africa’s economy – the biggest on the continent.Negotiations to end the strike and reach an agreement on pay were due to resume yesterday.But Fikile Slovo Majola, general secretary of the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), said government threats over the weekend to fire striking nurses would only undermine efforts to reach a resolution.”The Department of Health’s threats to fire nurses is only going to put negotiations in jeopardy,” he told Reuters.The strike was organised by the powerful Cosatu federation of trade unions, a key force in a political alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC).Cosatu’s affiliated unions make up about 60 per cent of public service employees.Nampa-ReutersIt quoted police as saying the nurses were blocking entrances to the hospital.Several government buildings and hospitals were besieged by picketing public servants in KwaZulu-Natal province, the South African Press Association (Sapa) reported.Police and union leaders were not immediately available to comment on the reports.Sapa quoted a police spokesman as saying there were no shootings, only the arrests of 12 striking workers at Durban’s Addington Hospital.Since the start of the strike on Friday, tensions have risen between the government and public workers, increasing fears the mass action will cripple services and hurt South Africa’s economy – the biggest on the continent.Negotiations to end the strike and reach an agreement on pay were due to resume yesterday.But Fikile Slovo Majola, general secretary of the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), said government threats over the weekend to fire striking nurses would only undermine efforts to reach a resolution.”The Department of Health’s threats to fire nurses is only going to put negotiations in jeopardy,” he told Reuters.The strike was organised by the powerful Cosatu federation of trade unions, a key force in a political alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC).Cosatu’s affiliated unions make up about 60 per cent of public service employees.Nampa-Reuters