S Africa police clash with nurses

The union activists were reportedly trying to prevent nurses from working.

The police say the grenades are not harmful but unions say it was a "brutal" attack. Twelve people have been arrested.

After the clashes, the unions boycotted scheduled talks with the government. The unions want a 12% pay rise - double what the government has offered.

Earlier, the government warned striking nurses they would be fired unless they return to work by Monday.

'Mortuaries closed'

"No firearms were used in dispersing the crowd. We only used sound grenades which only have power to make sound and disperse people," police Superintendent Vincent Mdunge told AFP news agency.

A public service strike that began on Friday has crippled many hospitals and army medical staff have been brought in to provide care.

Some unions are on indefinite strike, but others only called for a one-day strike.

Health department chief Thamsanqa Mseleku accused some health workers of "intimidating" their colleagues who wanted to go to work.

"We believe that we cannot sit and watch while that kind of anarchy takes place," he said, according to the Sapa news agency.

He said the nurses were providing an "essential" service.

Sapa reports that on Sunday just 100 beds were being used in Durban's King Edward VIII hospital - the city's largest, which has 922 beds.

"The workers have actually locked up the mortuaries. We need to be able to have compassion. They have a right to die with dignity," Mr Mseleku said.

Some 700,000 workers across the country were called out on Friday, in what analysts say was one of the biggest strikes in the country's history.

On Friday, police fired rubber bullets at striking health workers who were preventing patients entering a Cape Town hospital.

South Africa has seen many qualified health professionals leaving the country for greener pastures abroad in recent years.

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