#KZNOncologyCrisis: It is time for the MEC to admit his culpability
31 May 2018
Parliamentary questions by the Democratic Alliance (DA) have revealed that at least 499 cancer patients died during 2015 and 2016 at two of KZN’s largest hospitals - Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH) and Greys - as a result of the ongoing KwaZulu-Natal Oncology crisis. The response also shows that the patients died while waiting for cancer treatment.
Yet the Health MEC, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, told both the provincial and national Health Portfolio Committees that he does not know how many people died. During a subsequent hearing by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the MEC was compelled, while under oath, to supply the names of the dead which he has previously refused to.
MEC Dhlomo must admit here and now that all of these people died under his watch. He must admit that they died because he did nothing to help them for years and admit his own culpability.
The DA remains committed to bringing a charge of culpable homicide, if not murder against MEC Dhlomo. If he is not prepared to admit his culpability, a court of law will do so.
Had it not been for the DA in this province - and the SAHRC's findings and coercive means - the MEC would until this day have done nothing. We know this because when he had the opportunity to do something, he did nothing.
The fact is that this ANC-led government, under this Premier does not believe in accountability. If it did, MEC .Dhlomo would have been gone a long time ago
The order to stop the cancer machine maintenance payments, which led to them falling apart, was under MEC Dhlomo’s patronage system. It is also what chased oncologists away from this province. The MEC blames a certain supplier but then still settled the amount due to them. Why would he do this if they are indeed the thieves he claims they are? And why does the DoH still do business, in almost all of KZN’s hospitals, with this same company?
It is also as a result of MEC Dhlomo’s interference in the affairs of the department that that lives have been lost. Any progress announced in terms of the resolution of the Oncology crisis, is done so under duress. The MEC and this government are no heroes or saviours.
During a recent oversight inspection by the DA to Durban’s RK Khan Hospital, we found that it takes three months to get a CT-scan and a further six months to get an appointment at IALCH - let alone the 12 month waiting period to then receive treatment.
Add to this the fact that not all diagnostic and screening equipment is properly working in KZN. The earliest appointment for a mammogram at RK Khan is in 2019 and at another hospital in 2020 - let alone then having surgery or a referral to oncology. Durban’s Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital - the third largest in the country - still has challenges with simple X-rays.
Despite being recently advertised as “cancer machines”, Large Loop Excision of Transformation Zone (LLET) machines do not detect cancer. If ever there was a cheap publicity stunt by MEC Dhlomo and his Department this must be it. At the hospital level where these machines are available, GPs can only do limited scopes of work with them.
After that, patients must still be referred to gynaecologists where there are also massive backlogs when it comes to procedures. And when there is established cancer, all the patients fall into that same long waiting queue and become victims of the oncology crisis. That is why so many women die of breast and cervical cancer – cancers that could have been treated and cured.
During his opening remarks, the SAHRC's chairperson confirmed that the reason for the MEC being subpoenaed to appear under oath was because they were not satisfied with the progress in resolving the Oncology crisis. The SAHRC resorted to this because this MEC and his Department did not adequately respond to them, as they are compelled to. Yet the MEC has the gall to stand in this House and tell us that the Commission is satisfied.
The DA has had enough of this lack of accountability. If the Premier does not act, he too will be complicit in this crime against society. In the unlikely event that the crisis is resolved, there will never be justice for the any people who have died or for their loved ones.
Issued by Imran Keeka, DA KZN Spokesperson on Health, 31 May 2018
