Behind the doors of the Livingstone Hospital Nurses’ Home, the people entrusted with saving lives say they were forced to survive in conditions unfit for human habitation — having to flush toilets using buckets of water, bath in basins and navigate dark corridors thick with decay.
While the majority of the nurses who have been living there since Covid-19 were evicted last week, it is understood that at least 10 remain.
Recruited from other provinces to help shoulder the burden of the pandemic, the nurses said they were left with nowhere else to go following their court-ordered eviction handed down in October 2025 — and that life in the nurses’ quarters had been far from pleasant.
“We’re traumatised by this experience but didn’t have a choice but to stay here,” one of the nurses said.
They came to the city from as far afield as Limpopo, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.
A visit to the premises last week revealed no working showers, most of the toilets broken and the doors and windows smashed.
The place appeared largely unkept. The paint was peeling from the walls and an unbearable smell wafted through the corridors due to the pile of uncollected refuse bags.
Nurses share one or two toilets on a single floor with about 10 rooms.
A single room contains a single bed, a small cupboard and makeshift tables, where they cook their meals.
However, the health department said the nurses were not meant to be occupying the facility after the Covid-19 pandemic and were supposed to find their own accommodation after they were permanently employed.
The first and second floor designated by the hospital for administration was properly taken care of besides a few minor maintenance issues.
A nurse, who did not want to be named, said that on her floor six nurses shared a single toilet, which they had to flush using buckets of water.
“We don’t [always] have electricity. Our patients expect us to be our best every day while we live like this,” she said.
During the walkabout from the first floor to the fifth, a second nurse said she was disappointed in the Eastern Cape health department.
“When we were hired during Covid-19, we were promised greener pastures. But look at this place.
“We’re professionals but we’re not treated as such.
“We don’t have bathrooms and the toilets are broken.
“We use [buckets] to bath. We preach hygiene to our patients but we live in squalor.”
A third nurse said they were now considered “unlawful dwellers” and “illegal occupants”, but they were always prepared to pay for proper accommodation.
“We have also been saying that we can fix a section here for ourselves or be placed in the doctors’ quarters not far from here because there are rooms available.”
At times, she said, they had to club together to pay people to collect their rubbish.
“They stopped everything [all services].
“They closed off some sections with burglar bars so that we can’t hang our laundry outside.
“So we started using unoccupied rooms to hang our clothes.”
A department official, who did not want to be named, said the facility was previously used as the Lilitha Nursing College before it relocated to Central.
“That building was left unoccupied and during Covid-19 we placed those nurses there who were working in Livingstone and Dora, among other health facilities.
“What happened is that there was a demand for these people to be employed full time, which we did.
“But the first and second floor has always been for admin. We stopped servicing them, including cleaning.
“They don’t pay for electricity and water.”
He said some of the alleged illegal occupiers from the community had started a car wash and a shebeen at the facility, but they did not know who they were.
In a report which came out in 2022, afterparliamentary portfolio on health committee members visited Livingstone Hospital, the condition at the nurses’ home was described as “terrible”.
“The committee was informed that it was prone to vagrants and theft. There were many broken windows.”
Eastern Cape Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA chair Vuyo Nodlawu said the eviction of nurses was perpetuated by those within the administration who had allegedly been collecting rent fraudulently from unauthorised residents.
“When the authorised residents refused to be exploited, they started by extracting cleaning services. As a result, the place is a pigsty,” Nodlawu said.
Eastern Cape Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) labour relations organiser Thembisa Witbooi said its members lived on the third, fourth and fifth floors.
“We saw that the conditions and environment on its own were inhumane,” she said.
“But we need to note that if you look at the first and second floor, which is being occupied by HR, they are neat and clean.
“But the third to the fifth floors are deliberately neglected on the basis that the employer willingly stopped the basic services of cleaning or providing maintenance to those floors.”
Witbooi said it was unfair to the nurses who worked long shifts.
“A nurse expects to come home to a warm and clean environment, but this has potential to cause chronic illnesses for them and their families.
“We’re currently experiencing shortage of staff as it is.”
Health spokesperson Siyanda Manana confirmed that the Lilitha campus was moved after a decision was taken to repurpose the building into offices.
Currently, the first and second floors are occupied by HR, finance and supply chain management.
Manana said last week that there had been 84 alleged illegal occupants in the building, and 34 were known to be employees of the department, which included support staff.
He said 50 were unknown members of the community.
Manana said the nurses started occupying the facility in 2020.
The department appointed contract nurses for 12 months, and due to lockdown and travel restrictions, the contract nurses were allowed to stay on a lease arrangement, paying R900 a month.
After Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, the nurses were appointed permanently, earning a stable salary.
He said they were then meant to find their own accommodation.
Manana said the building had been invaded by external people, and incidents included someone setting up a shebeen.
“An employee who was off duty fell on the stairs while visiting friends and died. It is alleged that they were visiting a room where alcohol was being sold,” he said.
“Rental was stopped in April 2022 but several extensions were granted for them to use the rental money to seek accommodation.
“Our plan is to renovate the building and have it occupied by hospital administration staff under one roof.”
Police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg confirmed that there had been a few cases of theft out of motor vehicles, burglaries and malicious damage to property at the facility.
“During September 2025, a 44-year-old suspect was arrested on charges of theft, and the case in still on the court roll,” Janse van Rensburg said.
At the time of publication, the parliamentary portfolio committee on health had not responded to questions relating to action taken by them following their 2022 report.
The Herald
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