Fed-up kitchen staff at the Sebokeng Hospital in Gauteng downed tools on Thursday after one of their colleagues was allegedly shocked by an exposed live wire while washing a pot.
Their protest forced the hospital CEO, Dr Peter Motlhaoleng, and his team of managers to roll up their sleeves and help prepare food for patients while the kitchen staff watched.
The workers’ actions follow months of complaining about working in an unsafe environment in which they said they were forced to serve patients food that had reached its sell-by date.
Among those seen in the kitchen in aprons and headwraps on Thursday were deputy directors, nursing operational managers, clinical doctors, the HR manager and environmental practitioners. Cleaners, gardeners and administrative staff were also roped in to help serve pasta, chicken and squash to patients from the kitchen located next to the mortuary.
The kitchen is in such disarray that its ceiling leaks in several places, and during last week’s heavy rains, one of the supervisors had to patch it up. Mould has formed on the ceiling.
Near one of the large food pots, there was a gaping hole in the floor, which was being used to drain excess food and gravy to the floor underneath, resulting in a sickly stench.
Workers claim that whenever it rains, the incompletely renovated kitchen area floods, making it impossible to work safely.
They allege that over the past few months, they have had to prepare meals using spices, sauces and vinegar that had expired. They claimed to have repeatedly complained to management but were told to do their work and continue using the expired ingredients on the patients’ food.
Sowetan saw a bottle of vinegar in the kitchen that had expired in June and was provided with pictures showing a bag of lentils that had also expired in June.
A worker, who asked not to be named, said: “It is unsafe to continue working like this when one of our own suffered an electric shock. There are rats here. They [the hospital] just dug holes so that when we wash the pots, the water can go in there. We are not sure how far the dirty water goes, but it smells bad.
“The mould on the ceiling makes us sick.”
The worker said government inspectors recently confiscated some of the expired food items.
Another worker expressed concern for patients, saying it was “wrong for a patient to be fed such meals”.
She said they decided to take a stand yesterday after their pleas were ignored by their manager.
This is unacceptable, as it is putting lives in danger; one employee has suffered from electric shock, and how many more should suffer because of the department’s failures?
— DA MPL Kingsol Chabalala
“When it is hot, there is a smell coming out from one of the holes on the floor,” she said.
Simamkele Takane, the Nehawu regional secretary, said the union has been trying to intervene on behalf of the affected workers for months.
“We have raised the issue as Nehawu several times about the incomplete kitchen and workers have been tolerant enough and, understandably, they are withdrawing their services because of unbearable conditions,” she said.
“We even shared videos [of the kitchen] with management, but there is no solution. They keep shifting goalposts.”
Motlhaoleng said he was not aware of the videos and that the kitchen was undergoing refurbishment to address infrastructure challenges.
He said allegations about expired food were unfounded.
“We do not serve expired or rotten food. We have a system in place to ensure that food is served freshly without expiry.
“The hospital has a committee that monitors expired food and its disposal. This is supported by the environmental policies of the department,” he said.
Motlhaoleng said the kitchen would be completed in November.
DA MPL Kingsol Chabalala said the lives of the kitchen employees or anyone using the hospital kitchen were in danger due to the department’s failure to fix it.
“It was supposed to be fixed by 2023. This is unacceptable, as it is putting lives in danger; one employee has suffered from electric shock, and how many more should suffer because of the department’s failures?” he asked.
Sowetan
