BEING the watchman of the society is one hard and demanding job for a lot of people in the country and the world at large, but for Chitungwiza Central Hospital (CCH) security workforce it is not that hard but a daily routine.

The security guards work during the day and night on rotational basis. They deal with various work as-signments that involve interaction with a lot of clients such as the sick, relatives and members of staff. Some of the clients become aggressive especially when they are shown where to park their vehicles or if the security check their vehicles.

During visiting time they also control number of visitors who see patients. According to the hospital policy only two visitors are allowed at time. Misunderstanding also arises as more visitors will be forcing themselves to see the patient in numbers.

The almost male dominated department is headed by Mr. Gilbert Mulembasoja who is the chief security officer and his deputy Mr Taurai Nyakwava. The main purpose of the department is to protect the hospital premises, property, patients and staff members.

Mr Mulembasoja started working at the institution in 2002 as a security guard, was appointed acting security officer after the death of Mr. Matare. He was the promoted to the post of chief security in 2017.

“After working in different places around Zimba-bwe I then decided to venture into another challenging field which is security but I have come to enjoy it each and every day,” said Mulembasoja.

Mr. Mulembasoja did his security training at Vision Security and was awarded a certificate and later on did a gunner’s course which is mainly focused on training security officers on how to operate fire arms, which made him, qualify to be a chief security officer.

The department constitutes of two security teams which are the hospital internal security and the external team which was hired to help the hospital security team called the Vandrift security. The hospital team has 18 security guards in which two of them are ladies and the external team has 21 security guards with the three of them being ladies also.

The day of security guards starts with the allocation of duties to all officers. Their major check points around the hospital include the casualty area, administration, main pharmacy, stores and small and main gates to minimize thefts. There are people from the community who were caught by the security guards stealing drugs, equipment etc.

“The parade basically is about briefing the whole security team about the current state of affairs and the major areas which need maximum attention,” narrated Mr. Mulembasoja.

Ladies are now at parity with their male counterparts proving that women are capable of doing tasks done by males. The Government of Zimbabwe has put in place policies which promote the progress of women in various sectors like business, education and economy. Now we have women who hold male dominated posts such as pilots, women in mining and truck/ bus drivers who are women.

“It is sometimes very hard to work as a security personnel as a woman especially when you are on ward duty because sometimes the clients tend to shout at you during visiting hours but you just have to endure it because it’s our job,” said one of Vandrift female security staffer Ms. Nabanda Zangela.

Every job has its challenges speaking to some of the security guards they said, “We sometimes face different customers and they are very hard to deal with especially at the entrance points and the wards during visiting time but you just have to be firm and calm to make sure that there isn’t too much chaos caused around.”

As long as you do your job whole heartedly even the toughest situation won’t let you down but you will always be stronger as the day goes by.

The Public Relations Officer has conducted customer care training to security on how to deal with difficult clients and minimize conflicts.