By REGINALD KANYANE
14 August 2025- The Democratic Alliance (DA) said the Masakhane Provincial Laundry is supposed to clean the linen at 14 hospitals and 54 clinics in the Tshwane area, but only 1 of its 6 tunnel washers is working. The DA said this was revealed yesterday in an oversight visit by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s Health Committee to this laundry located in Rosslyn, north of Pretoria.
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health and Member of Provincial Legislature (MPL), Dr Jack Bloom said a tunnel washer is a large, industrial-scale washing machine that is essential for the high-volume cleaning of hospital laundry. Bloom said other broken machinery includes four out of 9 roller ironers, two out of 4 stand-alone dryers, one out of 2 small industrial washing machines and five out of 6 rotary presses.
He further said this includes both of the 2 finishing tunnels. Bloom added that there are 31 vacant posts, forcing the staff to do excessive overtime.
“Poor management is also indicated by the lack of a linen management plan, nor is there a maintenance plan for the machines. These plans are only being drawn up now.
“Patients are the victims of this inefficiency which causes frequent clean laundry shortages that increases the risk of infection. Facilities affected include the Steve Biko, Kalafong, George Mukhari, Pretoria West, Tshwane District, Mamelodi, Weskoppies, Odi, Jubilee and Bronkhorstspruit hospitals,” he said.
Bloom said he is not convinced that the department’s recapitalisation programme will solve the deep-rooted problems at the Masakhane laundry. He said a DA-run administration would review the five provincial laundries to ensure optimal cost-efficiency and output, working with the private sector to ensure clean laundry is never a problem for our public hospitals.
The Guardian 