New Gauteng Health MEC must get it right this time

2 December 2020

The newly-appointed Gauteng Health MEC NomathembaMokgethi needs to hit the ground running to confront the ongoing COVID-19 crisis but must also do radical surgery to fix the deep-rooted rot in the Gauteng Health Department.

Premier David Makhura has announced an intervention team of experts and health professionals, but we have seen before the failure of similar interventions and “turn-around plans”.

Previously there was a two-year intervention by PricewaterhouseCoopers (Pwc), and in November 2017 a high-level intervention team was appointed after the Life Esidimeni disaster.

These interventions did not prevent the massive corruption of the PPE contracts and other failures that have crippled health care in the province.

It is no use appointing an intervention team unless their recommendations are implemented, which has not happened previously.

I agree with Premier Makhura that there are deep systemic and structural problems in the Department. These will only be fixed by firing incompetent deployed cadres and destroying politically connected corruption networks. The Western Cape health department is the model to follow for effective management systems.

Meanwhile, Mokgethi’s first task should be to ensure that there is effective monitoring of COVID-19 infections so that speedy measures can be taken to prevent any further surges. The Department is currently providing erratic and untrustworthy COVID-19 figures e.g. it is claimed that there are 1138 active infections, but there are 1386 COVID-19 patients in hospital, which is clearly impossible. An accurate district breakdown is also needed, but this has not been provided since 4 November.

The Democratic Alliance wishes the new MEC well in her daunting task and will assist where we can to ensure that a decent health service is provided in Gauteng.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 2 December 2020