By BAKANG MOKOTO
14 February 2026- The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Northern Cape said healthcare cannot be fixed from behind a desk and if health governance is reduced to chasing targets instead of addressing realities in clinics and hospitals, patients will continue to suffer. The DA said this is a warning following this week’s legislature oversight meeting on the Northern Cape Department of Health’s Annual Report, where the newly appointed Head of Department, Oupa Phiri, expressed confidence that performance target achievements will increase from 51% to 70% under his leadership.
DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader and Member of Provincial Legislature (MPL), Isak Fritz said health is about people and frontline services that save lives. Fritz said the urgent interventions required to stabilise this department cannot be found in improved reporting metrics, but in tangible reforms.
“Appointing and retaining additional healthcare professionals to fill the 1 719 critical occupation posts across the establishment, including the 367 vacancies at Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital, must take priority. The thousands of surgery backlogs, with at least a year-long waiting time, must be attended to.
“Emergency Medical Services must be strengthened and modernised to ensure that there are more than double the 60 operational ambulances available to service our vast province. Repairing infrastructure, like broken air conditioner units, and ensuring availability of necessary equipment and medical and pharmaceutical supplies, by facilitating timeous payment to service providers and suppliers, is also non-negotiable,” he said.
Fritz further said at the same time, the department must address financial controls to ensure that money is astutely managed to enable the above and so that not another cent is mismanaged, lost or stolen. He added that this requires the will to address internal audit recommendations, of which only 19 out of 235 were implemented in the previous financial year.
“It also requires boldness to truly prioritise health necessities above administrative nice-to-haves. With provincial healthcare on its knees, getting this right is what really matters now. The DA will continue to monitor access to healthcare in communities and hold the department accountable at every level.
“The people of the Northern Cape do not need better statistics, they need doctors at their bedsides, ambulances at their doors, medicine on the shelves, and a health system that works,” said Fritz.
The Guardian 