Fear, uncertainty and anger gripped dozens of nurses at Livingstone Hospital this week after authorities moved to evict them from the hospital’s nurses’ home — a decision that has left many scrambling for accommodation in the townships.
For some of the 50 nurses affected, the eviction means being forced far from the safety of hospital housing and closer to areas they believe will pose daily threats of violence, poverty and vulnerability.
The situation was particularly ominous for those who had been recruited from other provinces during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and who now feared becoming easy targets in their uniforms.
A distressed nurse expressed how frightened she was about her reality of having to live in a Gqeberha township following her eviction.
The nurse, who did not want to be named, said she was aware crime was rife in these areas.
“We’re very unhappy,” she said.
“Some of us are not from around here.
“I find myself now having to face potential thugs in the township because that’s the only place I can afford to live.
“We will be easy targets, especially in our uniforms.
“They can easily tell by our accents that we are not from here.”
She is one of 50 who were evicted from nurses’ living quarters by the Eastern Cape health department between Monday and Tuesday.
Some came from as far as Limpopo, the North West and KwaZulu-Natal, and were hired by the department on a contractual basis at the height of Covid-19.
Their eviction was executed following a notice issued on January 31, which warned that should they fail to vacate, a sheriff would enforce their removal.
The department had acted on a court order granted in its favour in October 2025.
A second nurse said she was also among those looking for a place to live with her child.
“Some of us are scared and remained here [for as long as possible].”
She said a stipend was initially deducted from their salaries for rent but that had stopped.
“We never asked for our rent to be cancelled,” she said.
Health department spokesperson Siyanda Manana confirmed that their R900 rent was cancelled in 2022.
This, Manana said, happened after the nurses were permanently employed.
“These nurses came during Covid-19,” Manana said.
“We offered them accommodation because some of them came from outside Gqeberha.
“When we employed them permanently, we engaged with them to look for accommodation.
“They were given ample time.”
He said the department had established that there were also people living in the facility who were not nurses.
“The bottom floors have administrative offices.
“There were break-ins at those offices.
“IT staff were also robbed.
“There are criminal elements who stay there.
“The illegal occupiers were ordered by the court to vacate the premises.”
According to the notice dated January 28, the evictions were an outcome of a hospital process that started in 2022 after concerns were raised and a consensus was reached by the Institutional Transformation Unit and hospital board.
“It was further [necessitated] by various incidents including the death and robbery of staff members who work in the building,” the notice reads.
“The matter of health and safety was raised with management and the department of labour, and a contravention notice was issued.”
According to the notice, the department engaged the state attorney in June 2025 to seek relief from the court by evicting the illegal occupants from the property.
The matter was set down on October 28 2025 at the Gqeberha high court and the eviction order was granted.
“It has been noted that though some vacated the nurses’ home, there are still illegal occupants who have remained,” it reads further.
“The unions are hereby officially informed of the pending eviction by the sheriff.”
Eastern Cape Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) labour relations organiser Thembisa Witbooi said they had sought legal advice on Tuesday morning.
“We have taken a decision to consult our lawyers so that we can challenge this eviction,” Witbooi said.
“It is to be expected that our members are anxious because some have children.
“This situation will affect the services they are supposed to be rendering to our communities.
“The way the department has treated our members is unfair and unjust.
“It is inhumane.
“You can’t evict someone without giving them alternative accommodation.”
Witbooi said notices about the impending evictions had been displayed in the hospital.
“But as a union, we were never given notice.
“Our members were not individually given notices; they were just [stuck up].
“They didn’t know who these papers were addressing.
“Because they were not individually served, they were unable to take the matter up with the union so that we could represent them.”
She said they were also unsure why rent payments had been stopped by the department in 2022.
“These are frontline workers who are expected to serve our community.
“They were so important during Covid-19 — now the department needs to give back to these civil servants.
“That is not being done.
“Most importantly, they come from outside the province.
“They recruited them knowing they didn’t have family here.”
Eastern Cape Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA chair Vuyo Nodlawu said authorities had moved to evict illegal occupants after years of mounting safety concerns that included violent crime and the deaths of staff members.
He said the evictions followed a process initiated in 2022 and escalated after armed robberies had taken place.
A contravention notice was issued by the department of labour over health and safety risks.
“The issue of evictions came with shock and dismay to the organisation,” Nodlawu said.
“When the employees residing at the nurses’ home were initially served with letters of eviction, we engaged the management and residents.
“Our issue was that there was no audit of employees residing there.”
