The People Are Gone and the Cats Have Moved In – South Africa Goes on Strike

South Africa is now going on its third week of the public sector strike. At first I was not fazed, thinking for some reason Bushbuckridge (the sub-district I work in) would not be participating. But wow have I had a rude awakening. I experienced my first struggle only the second day of the strike. I was leaving work at 4:00pm having arrived early that day at 6:30am and found the front gates blocked by protesters as well as huge rocks and random scrap metal blocking the exit. I promptly turned around, realizing that I had never really investigated the hospital premises and didn’t even know if there was another exit. After driving around for 15minutes I was finally directed by a nice man who had had the same problem earlier that day.

Still believing the strike was kind of a joke, I showed up to work the next day finding the entire road to the hospital blocked. I parked in the closest parking lot and walked in. People around me were yelling and chanting and there was one guy hanging off the gate entrance leading the chants, they all had shirts and looked rather organized. I tried to sneak by only realizing seconds later that it is hard for a white person in this town to sneak anywhere. I was yelled at in different languages but I just smiled and waved and didn’t have a problem.

I walked into the hospital to see a boy sitting with his mom on the step next to the outpatient department crying. I stopped to say hi and see what was going on. His mom explained that he had been badly burned all over his body in an accident and no one was at the hospital to care for him. I had his mom follow me back to our office and was able to track down a doctor that lives near me. He was willing to help and the boy was finally cared for 4 hours later. This is when I finally realized the impact of the strike. I started looking around the hospital finding most of the once full hospital (being the largest public hospital in the entire sub-district) now only littered with people too sick to get out of bed and go home.

Three weeks later, the hospital is completely empty and the strike continues although, the workers on strike seem to take a two hour lunch break between 12pm and 2pm (random, I know). I walked through the female surgical ward today to find cats sleeping on beds once used for women after delivery. The sheets on all the beds have been torn off and the smell of old trash takes your breath away when walking down the halls. The pillows that were on only every other bed have now been ripped to pieces and feathers litter the hallways. This place once full of people, now looks like an abandon building.

As the public sector continues to negotiate with the government for higher wages the people in the community continue to suffer. I have heard a number of stories already of sick people having nowhere to go and those trying to collect their ARV treatment are scared to even try to enter the hospital. Private sector organizations and businesses are also starting to be impacted, the grocery store was forced to close their doors and our organization has been threatened twice now to close our doors.

We are hoping this strike ends soon but currently there is no end in sight. All we know it is the worst strike most of the residents of Bushbuckridge have ever seen.