Nurses’ eviction halted, alternative housing mandated

Story audio is generated using AI

The Eastern Cape health department has been ordered to find alternative accommodation for nurses who were evicted from Livingstone Hospital’s nurses’ home.

The order was made in the Gqeberha high court.

The relief comes after 37 nurses affiliated to the Eastern Cape Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) approached the court on an urgent basis last week.

The nurses were evicted from Livingstone Hospital’s staff living quarters on January 31 after the department obtained an eviction notice.

The original order was granted in October 2025.

On Friday, acting judge Shirley Tilana-Mabece ruled that the department’s eviction order be stayed until the renovations at Livingstone had been completed.

She further ordered that alternative accommodation would have to be found for the nurses at either Dora Nginza, Provincial Hospital, Park Drive flats or at the Protea flats at the predetermined rental of R900.

Alternatively, Tilana-Mabece ordered the department to comply with a resolution that was entered into with the labour unions in 1999, which states that in such cases, the state should find accommodation elsewhere for staff brought in from other provinces.

Health spokesperson Siyanda Manana said the department would appeal against the order.

However, Hospersa labour relations organiser Thembisa Witbooi said they welcomed the ruling.

“This protects the rights of our members. They will have a place to stay until we go back to court,” Witbooi said.

She said the department had a responsibility to show the court why Resolution 3 of 1999 should not be considered.

“So we are waiting for the respondent [the department] to go to court to show good cause why this resolution should not be implemented,” she said.

The resolution offered rights to the employees to stay in state houses, she said.

“In terms of this resolution, state housing is given to essential workers. Nurses are essential workers just like people working in Correctional Services and the SAPS.”

The nurses had been paying R900 towards their rental as part of a contract with the department.

Manana confirmed at the time that their rent was cancelled in 2022.

This happened after the nurses were permanently employed, he said.

They were among a group hired at the height of Covid-19 and were offered accommodation because some of them came from as far afield as Limpopo, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.

He said the department had established that there were also people living in the facility who were not nurses.

Witbooi, meanwhile, said the union’s members lived on the third, fourth and fifth floors.

When The Herald visited the premises shortly after the evictions there were no working showers, most of the toilets were 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 a pile of uncollected refuse bags.

Nurses shared one or two toilets on a single floor with about 10 rooms.

A single room contains a single bed, small cupboard and makeshift tables, where they cooked their meals.

A nurse said some of their colleagues had remained at the facility despite the eviction.

Before approaching the court, Hospersa wrote to health MEC Ntandokazi Capa and head of department Dr Rolene Wagner, among others, raising the issue of the evictions.

In the letter, the union said labour unions were not cited in the court papers that led to the eviction order.

“In addition, the court papers provided limited information on alternative accommodation and contained no information relating to the rights of children and households headed by women,” it says.

The union said many of its members had lived there for more than six months.

“There was no inquiry as to the availability of sustainable accommodation or land. This is contrary to Section 6(3) of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act, 19 of 1998.

“In addition, the department is bound to Resolution 3 of 1999, which provides two reasons to terminate tenancy.

“The reasons for eviction relate to maintenance, alternatively a building which is derelict.

“This places a positive obligation on the employer to reimburse the employees for the reasonable actual costs of alternative accommodation in terms of paragraph 9 of the resolution.

“Resolution 3 of 1999 is a collective agreement which forms part of the employees’ remunerative allowances and benefits.

“As a result, the employer is in breach of the said agreement,” the letter states.

It urged authorities to urgently provide alternative accommodation for nurses.

The department was given until February 9 to respond or face legal action.