Dear John Henry Steenhuisen

We write this letter with much discernment and discouragement.

We were employed in December 2020 as Data Capturers to capture patient details on the DatCov system that was created back then to monitor in-hospital COVID surveliance. We came via the KZN Provincial Department of Health and then signed contracts with the NGO, IHPS. We were then transferred over to a new NGO, Right to Care. There is one DatCov Data Capturer that has been allocated to each hospital within KZN and the other 8 provinces throughout South Africa.

We started in our facilities in December 2020, which was when the second wave of COVID had just started. We were told that we needed to capture each patients details onto the DatCov System and follow up on each patient until they were discharged. This meant that we would have to work within the COVID wards as we needed access to the patients as well as their files. Many of us were not prepared for what we signed up for but still we pushed on and ensured that stats were updated on a daily basis. We worked under tough conditions but still ensured that the job was done. We were given little to no support at our facilities and we had to find our own way around. We bore witness to people being ventilated and many dying, this did take an emotional toll on us but we still kept working to ensure that the country could see what was going on in healthcare facilities.

During the intervals of there being no COVID admissions we were assigned other tasks within our facilities, we are still engaged in most of these activities. We were very much involved in the EVDS vaccination program and once that ended we found ourselves learning and working on capturing data into other programs like tier.net and DHIS Web. Each and everyone of us play an integral role in the processing of data within our facility as we all currently are managed as part of the Monitoring and Evaluation Team and work closely with our FIO’s.

We have since been informed that our contracts will be terminated on the 31st of December 2022 with no chance of being renewed.

As you may be aware that there was a circular that was sent by National Department of Health advising that all COVID contract staff should be absorbed, here again we were not considered as we belong to the NGO.

Now it has also been brought to light that Right to Care has agreed to sign on the DC’s that were employed during the EVDS vaccination program, these DC’s will be signing a 12 month contract with the very same NGO that is terminating our contracts on the 31st of December 2022. My question is, what is the difference between these DC’s and us? When we currently function in the same roles doing the same tasks. Why are DatCov staff just been thrown out of the system now that COVID is over. This is really not fair to us DC’s who worked tirelessly throughout COVID.

As DatCov staff we have been through many difficulties but still we persevered and stayed the course. All we ask is for us to be given an opportunity to keep our jobs. Why are we not being considered for an extension of contract even though this was the memo received from National Department of Health, yes I do know that we are from the NGO but the tasks that we perform are just the same as the other COVID/EVDS contract staff and we have been here before many of them.

We await your response.

Regards
DatCov Team KZN