Dear Mr President- It May be Almost Over, But I Hope You've Learnt...

I am glad the public sector strike is coming to an end.  However, I do not think that the government has listened to what the problems are. 

I am affected by this strike. My aunt who is very sick and cannot afford medical aid fell sick a couple of weeks ago and was turned away from Chris Hani Baragwanath twice because nurses were on strike. Her illness progressed until she couldn’t walk. The family had to gather money to take her to a specialist who then had to phone Baragwanath and insist that they admit her. Thank God she didn’t die.

I went to visit her on Saturday in hospital. I haven’t been to Baragwanath in more than five years and I was shocked that nothing has changed. They have not repainted, retiled, the machinery has not been updated. And if healthcare is a priority to government why is it then that this hospital that services one of the most congested regions in our country has not been properly maintained?

Imagine then, all you people who do not get why nurses who have to work twelve hour days six days a week in such environments are angry, that you are a nurse at Baragwanath and you are expected to work with malfunctioning machinery.

Why are teachers on strike? When last did you take a walk through a township school? We sit here pretending that we get it. We get the anger. We do not teach children who come to school hungry, we do not teach children who have HIV or are raped on a daily basis by a relative, we do not teach children who are raising their siblings, we do not teach in schools where there is no electricity and desks and chairs are either broken or in short supply.

Where children who attend schools in suburbs can afford to buy their own exercise books most of the children whose teachers are on strike only receive exercise books in March and have to share textbooks. Do you get the frustration of the mess that these public servants have to muddle through?

Add the fact that our elected officials squander money on luxuries while basic needs are not met. They cannot give teachers and nurses and other public servants increases yet they can afford to throw multimillion rand parties.

They cannot afford to upgrade schools without the help of private funds but they can afford to attend international conferences.

They cannot afford to fix hospitals and equip them properly yet they can afford to spend millions on pushing forward bills that will protect their corruption from being revealed.

I should be angry at nurses for going on strike and depriving my aunt of decent healthcare. Yet I know that even if nurses weren’t on strike, the hospital my aunt is in isn’t giving her the best healthcare because the hospital is derelict and unkempt.

I can only hope that government keeps its promise to give the poor proper healthcare and education because at the rate they are going, it will not be unruly public servants that they will be dealing with but the poor who are forced to use crumbling infrastructure.