Minister fails to peruade nurses in North not to protest

DESPITE a surprise visit by the Minister of Health and Social Services to the Oshakati State hospital last week, nurses there are still determined to demonstrate on Wednesday.

Sister Eva Velikoshi, the regional co-ordinator of the Namibia Nurses’ Union (Nanu), told The Namibian yesterday that Minister Richard Kamwi stopped by the hospital on Thursday to urge nurses not to take part in the demonstration. She said only a few nurses turned up to be addressed by Kamwi, as they had not known the Minister would visit them.Kamwi was on his way to AIDS Day commemorations at Opuwo in the Kunene Region.According to Velikoshi, Minister Kamwi urged nurses at the Oshakati State Hospital to ask themselves what their priorities were – participating in the demonstration or taking care of their patients.”If you are employed by the Government and go out to do your things and leave patients dying, you must know that you are violating the Constitution, if you are not going through the bargaining [agent],” Velikoshi quoted Kamwi as saying.”He went on further to say nurses and doctors are top-class professionals because they work with people’s lives.[He said] it is a shame to see nurses and doctors striking or demonstrating,” Velikoshi told The Namibian.According to Velikoshi, nurses would not abandon their patients by “putting down syringes and needles” on Wednesday.”We are just going to air our views peacefully, without violating any section of the Constitution.If then we are not listened to, we will take harder action, which might be disastrous to this Ministry and to the patients.If we are top-class professional, then we deserve better treatment, and that is what we are fighting for,” Velikoshi said.”It is their [nurses’] democratic rights that the Namibian Constitution provides for – freedom of speech.It is a pity that the demonstration has to take place, but the ‘shame of nurses demonstrating’ could have been avoided.We have started a battle, and we will fight until the matter is resolved amicably, and we will fight until the ‘last bullet is spent’,” Velikoshi said.Meanwhile, Nanu’s co-ordinator in the Oshikoto Region, John Lumbu, has told The Namibian that nurses at the Onandjokwe Hospital will also take part in the demonstration on Wednesday.Lumbu said nurses would march from the hospital to the Oniipa Constituency Councillor’s office during the lunch hour, where they will hand over a petition to Councillor John Shiindi.She said only a few nurses turned up to be addressed by Kamwi, as they had not known the Minister would visit them. Kamwi was on his way to AIDS Day commemorations at Opuwo in the Kunene Region.According to Velikoshi, Minister Kamwi urged nurses at the Oshakati State Hospital to ask themselves what their priorities were – participating in the demonstration or taking care of their patients.”If you are employed by the Government and go out to do your things and leave patients dying, you must know that you are violating the Constitution, if you are not going through the bargaining [agent],” Velikoshi quoted Kamwi as saying.”He went on further to say nurses and doctors are top-class professionals because they work with people’s lives.[He said] it is a shame to see nurses and doctors striking or demonstrating,” Velikoshi told The Namibian.According to Velikoshi, nurses would not abandon their patients by “putting down syringes and needles” on Wednesday.”We are just going to air our views peacefully, without violating any section of the Constitution.If then we are not listened to, we will take harder action, which might be disastrous to this Ministry and to the patients.If we are top-class professional, then we deserve better treatment, and that is what we are fighting for,” Velikoshi said.”It is their [nurses’] democratic rights that the Namibian Constitution provides for – freedom of speech.It is a pity that the demonstration has to take place, but the ‘shame of nurses demonstrating’ could have been avoided.We have started a battle, and we will fight until the matter is resolved amicably, and we will fight until the ‘last bullet is spent’,” Velikoshi said.Meanwhile, Nanu’s co-ordinator in the Oshikoto Region, John Lumbu, has told The Namibian that nurses at the Onandjokwe Hospital will also take part in the demonstration on Wednesday.Lumbu said nurses would march from the hospital to the Oniipa Constituency Councillor’s office during the lunch hour, where they will hand over a petition to Councillor John Shiindi.