Umm Muhammed Umar

It has been 10 months since a fire stopped most operations at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital. Thousands of patients have been left without care, including those who need critical treatment, such as cancer patients. Activists of the Defend Our Democracy campaign on Sunday picketed at the hospital, under the banner: ‘Fix and Open Charlotte Maxeke Now!’

Radio Islam spoke to the campaign’s Duduseng Mmethi who explained the aim of the picket. Mmethi said that the aim of the picket was to highlight the plight of poor working-class communities within the Johannesburg area, who now cannot make use of services at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital because of the delays in repairing the facility. She said, “And so, what has been happening, is that patients have been redirected. Secondly, for areas of the hospital that are not currently working, they have been directed to Baragwanath Hospital, and the Women’s Hospital.” She added, “We, as a campaign, believe that it’s, firstly taking too long to fix everything that was burnt, particularly because the ward is not currently working at the moment. And yesterday we heard reports from senior people within the hospital, saying that they were almost like less than 50% of the hospital’s functioning properly. And we think that that is a concern.”

Mmethi said that another matter of concern was the allegations of corruption that have surfaced, as well as the premier’s decision to remove the repair project of the hospital from the Department of Infrastructure, to the Department of Health. She expressed concern that there was a pathway of corruption, particularly around COVID-19 performance in in the city. Mmethi said, “And one of the calls that we have made in the past is for premier David Makhura to make transparent and public procurement, tenders, etc. that people know who first it is, how much is it for, and what are the timelines to get it done, so that we can keep them accountable and monitor that.” She said that they were disappointed because, in the past, the premiere had released information publicly and consistently, and there were now no longer any updates. Defend Our Democracy also wants the fire’s forensic report to be made public, especially to the residents of the city of Johannesburg.

Regarding whether the picket would actually make a difference, Mmethi said the activists did certainly have realistic expectations. She was upbeat about the fact that the Housing Department of Health did send someone in a senior role to receive their memorandum. The organization also subsequently received notification from the premier himself that he would respond to the picket.