Umm Muhammed Umar

The Gauteng Department of Health owes more than 42 500 businesses over R3 billion. Hospitals are under stress with security guards striking, food shortages, and planned health care worker layoffs having made headlines over the past months. Radio Islam spoke to Action SA’s Lincoln Machaba about the unstable situation.

Hospitals, it seems, cannot afford to provide patients with a minimum of food, all because suppliers were owed more than R3 billion. Machaba said that the broader issue was that the service providers were linked to the government through the ANC. He said, “So even their own people are starting to say, maybe we should put down our tools and stop supplying the government.”

Edenvale security guards not only did not receive salaries for three months, but were also unfairly dismissed. The Department of Health simply ignored the disappearance of the service provider and appointed another company. Of even greater concern was that food shortages at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital were so severe, that nursing staff and public volunteers have been providing food for patients. Machaba said that, regarding the issue of the security guards, it had been attempting to interact with the Department of Health for the last month and a half, to no avail. He said, “So now, a few weeks down the line, now, the food shortages were coming up; the temporary workers are now not going to be renewed. So, it’s just an indication that, I think, the department as a whole needs a clean-up session. And I think voters need to think about this very carefully, come 2024.”

Action SA has called for swift action by the Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, or, for her to step aside. Machaba said, “But what our message is to South Africans, is that the government as a whole, need to step aside, in 2024.” He said, “We need to vote in a new government that’s going to care about, not only just the health problems that we’re having in the country, but all the other issues that we have; electricity; roads in a state of a mess. So, not only her to step aside, but rather I would say the ANC government to step aside as a whole.”

The Gauteng Health Department has been crisis for years, while there seems to be no political will to address the challenges. Machaba said that there needed to be a move away from political appointments, and that people that are competent enough to actually deal with the challenges should instead be appointed. He said, “this funding crisis that Dr Nomathemba is saying she now is faced with, is not only one that she’s dealing with now, but has been ongoing for the past 10 years.” He was adamant that South Africans looked “to the root cause and deal with the entire government as a whole.”