25 August 2020

TO:	News Editor
FROM:	Ms SA Mchunu Registrar and CEO

The SANC – Appreciating the value of nurses and midwives especially during the Covid-19 pandemic

The world is experiencing its biggest crisis in more than a hundred years, with the saving of lives at the forefront of every thought and action.

In the midst of this pandemic is healthcare workers and more specifically, nurses and midwives. 
Often the sacrifices that they make are done under impossible conditions, at the cost of their own health and safety, and at the cost of time not spent with their loved ones.

Although the SANC is not an employer or a union, and thus cannot interfere in employer-employee matters, it appreciates the nurses’ and midwives’ commitment and sacrifice and thus supports a call to provide them with personal protective equipment, ensuring their safety at all times. As regulator of the profession the SANC also supports the need for as many nurses as possible to assist during the pandemic.

The Council of the SANC resolved at its meeting in July 2020, that an increase in the annual fees for the year 2021/2022 (normally payable from July –December 2021 for 2022), will be waivered. The annual fees for the next payment cycle (2021/22) will therefore be the same as this current cycle.

This could not be implemented during the current payment cycle due to a legislated process and timeframe for the SANC budget. The SANC budget is drawn and submitted to the Minister of Health at least three months before the beginning of the following financial year. The current budget was submitted by the end of December 2019 already. 

This waiver is introduced to pledge its solidarity with nurses and midwives who are at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Council acknowledges that nurses and midwives render services at great sacrifice to themselves and families, and expresses its condolences to families, friends and employers who have experienced the loss of their loved ones.

Says Sizo Mchunu, SANC Registrar and CEO: “We express our deepest sympathy and sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of those nurses who have succumbed during the fight against Covid-19. You are the true heroes of the pandemic, with sacrifices made to the end. We salute you and we honour you. To this end, the SANC would like to announce its plans for a Wall of Remembrance in the internal garden at the SANC premises. The wall will contain the names of those nurses who have succumbed during the Covid-19 pandemic. What better way to honour these heroes than in a peaceful garden at the headquarters of the regulating body for nurses. Details will be provided to nurses as soon as possible.”

During the months of this pandemic in South Africa, we have seen nurses become the eyes and ears of patients’ family and in many instances the only ‘family’ the patients under isolation had. We cannot begin to fathom the emotional impact this has had on the nurses, while at the same time also seeing their friends and colleagues succumb to the virus. “The SANC calls on Employers to ensure that trauma counselling is readily available and Post Traumatic Stress addressed in its infancy”, says Ms Mchunu.

Nurses of South Africa, we salute you. We honour you. You have proved yourself not only worthy but exceptional. You truly are the embodiment of the SANC slogan for nurses: #bethatnurse.
 

ENDS

Issued by:
Mrs. Adri van Eeden
Senior Manager: Marketing and Communication
South African Nursing Council 
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.sanc.co.za 
Tel: 012 426-9542

Official Spokesperson and person to be quoted:
Ms. S Mchunu
Registrar and CEO: SA Nursing Council

For more information or to arrange for an interview with the Spokesperson, please contact Mrs. Adri van Eeden on Tel. (012) 426-9542 or email: [email protected]