By REGINALD KANYANE
Taung District Hospital is marred with maladministration, fraud, and corruption. This comes after the North West Health Department brought the recruiting processes to a grinding halt after it was marred with illegal activities.
According to information, the hospital CEO, Tumediso Setlhodi and members of various unions from Public Servants Association (PSA), DENOSA, NEHAWU, and HOSPERSA allegedly connived in the recruitment processes.
One of our sources who refused to be named for fear of reprisal said: “There were 20 posts available at the hospital, but Setlhodi allegedly increased them to 40. So, each representative from various unions allegedly brought two individuals to be appointed, while Setlhodi allegedly employed 20 individuals.
“There were twenty women who participated in a hospitality internship, but four of them remained behind when the internship expired. These four women were allegedly in romantic relationships with some managers at the hospital. They stayed for months at the hospital residential area without authorization, but the management kept mum on the matter.”
It is alleged that these four women were appointed by Setlhodi during the recruitment processes without going through interview processes. The appointments caused uproar at the hospital after one of the job seekers closed to one of the employees at the hospital was not appointed as agreed.
The job seeker allegedly wrote down a letter complaining to the department’s provincial office in Mahikeng. He also allegedly reported the matter to the Public Protector’s office. This prompted the MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha to assemble a team to investigate the matter.
Sambatha said the Taung District Hospital issue is quite interesting and sometimes one can laugh about it.
“Firstly, we have received a complainant letter from someone accusing the hospital management of maladministration, corruption, and fraud. He alleged that people are appointed not procedurally. The complainant alleged that there were no interviews conducted and then I despatched a team to go and investigate the matter.
“What is very interesting about this matter is that, when our team arrived at the hospital, the same person who launched a complaint was appointed at the same hospital. According to our investigations, the appointment was meant to silence him. Now, the matter gives us more reasons to investigate,” said Sambatha.
He further said the department has stopped all recruitment processes at the hospital until the investigations are completed. Sambatha added that the department has also extended its investigations at the Joe Morolong Hospital in Vryburg.
“We have also had investigations at Joe Morolong Hospital in Vryburg. Our investigations at Joe Morolong Hospital are on a basis that female job seekers are expected to write some specified tests aside with specified individuals for them to be given appointment confirmations.
“The department has extended its investigations to the provincial offices where we are investigating the leakages that are done especially in internal control and supply chain. We are also investigating asset management where we are checking assets ordered versus assets delivered in the past four years,” he said.
NEHAWU provincial secretary in the North West, Patrick Makhafane said: “We will launch intensive investigations on the matter. However, we want to categorically say our members were not acting on our mandate if there is any truth in the matter. Our shop-stewards sit in various panels as observers during interview processes and we doubt if they have any influence to swing interviews to any individual’s favour.”
The Guardian 