Community health workers have taken their grievances to Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa‚ DA legislator Jack Bloom said. Bloom‚ the DA’s Gauteng health spokesperson, said the workers staged a sit-in on Thursday after some of them were paid late or discharged. "Unpaid community health workers are protesting their late pay and termination of contracts‚ including some who occupied Ramokgopa’s office yesterday‚" Bloom said on Friday. "According to a Facebook post by the Gauteng Community Health Care Forum‚ they are occupying Ramokgopa’s office ‘to address the outstanding salaries and the demand of permanent employment’." Police were called in to remove the protesters‚ Bloom said. He said he had been "inundated" by complaints from community health workers who received a message from SmartPurse‚ contracted by the Gauteng health department to pay them, telling them that due to "technical delays"‚ they would receive their stipends by Monday, March 5. "It is appalling that about 8‚000 commu...
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