By OBAKENG MAJE

North West MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha, is under siege as the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU), calls for his resignation. The union alleged that, the department has underspent R200.6 million during the 2022/23 financial year.

HAITU Secretary-General, Lerato Mthunzi said the union demands the immediate dismissals of all nine Provincial Health MECs for underspending their budgets by a whopping R3 billion. Mthunzi further said they are shocked and angry at the news that, the Provincial Departments of Health in all provinces, underspent their budgets by a whopping R3 billion for the 2022/2023 financial year.

“According to IOL, the worst performer was Gauteng, which underspent by R2.7 billion. The Western Cape did not spend R180 million, Northern Cape failed to spent R141m, Limpopo underspent R103m, Free State failed to spent R85m, Eastern Cape underspent R62.2m, Mpumalanga underspent R25.3m and North West has underspent R200.6m.

“HAITU is shocked to hear that, the Gauteng Department of Health, claims that the department underspent its budget due to “late receipt of invoices, reduced number of nursing students enrolled for the academic year and delays in submission of non-profit institutions claims,” she said.

Mthunzi added that, they find their reasons difficult to believe because it is their experience that, many suppliers are not paid on time by the department. She said the failure of the department to pay suppliers results in shortages of essential items needed by healthcare facilities.

“The Gauteng MEC for Health, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, must be the first to go. Limpopo claimed its underspending was due to delayed deliveries of medical equipment, while Mpumalanga tried to justify its failure by claiming delays in procurement equipment and revised public procurement regulations. 

“The North West claimed its underspending was due to delays in submission of invoices by service providers and late delivery of medical equipment. These are just some of the pathetic, unconvincing excuses, which have been given to say the least,” she said.

Mthunzi said the excuses are a reflection of an uncaring health ministry that has no regard for the suffering of patients, and also workers. She said their members have to bear the brunt of the anger of the community every single day because the provincial departments of health are grossly incompetent.

“There are thousands of unemployed doctors and nurses, who are desperately needed to beef up the quality of service in the public healthcare sector. They have not been absorbed into the system. Our hospitals are collapsing because of the massive budget cuts, which have affected spending on infrastructure,” said Mthunzi.

She said there are ICU wards with leaky ceilings, elevators are inoperable in many hospitals, which make transportation of patients from different wards very difficult. Mthunzi said there is a lack of decent security in the facilities because they are told there is no money.

“So, to find out that these departments have failed to spend the money, which was allocated to them is uncalled for. Various MECs must account and mass dismissals must follow because their glaring failure to spend, contributes to the shocking state of public healthcare in this country.

“Their failures make healthcare workers accomplices to murder because of their reckless incompetence, which jeopardises the lives of the patients we serve,” she said.

Meanwhile, the North West Department of Health spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane refuted the allegations and said they are false.

“No, it’s not true and the department did not underspend R200.6 million. The department disputes this amount and on contrary, we can report only a R4.7 million underspending, which was on conditional grant.

“A rollover request for this amount was granted by Treasury. So, the department wishes to refer everyone, including HAITU to the 2022/2023 annual report in which the R4.7 million underspending is reported. 

“In the light of the facts above, the department views the call for Sambatha to be fired as baseless,” he said.

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