NEHAWU STATEMENT ON THE MEETING BETWEEN THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND THE NATIONAL UNION
Thursday April 26, 2018
A delegation of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] led by the General Secretary and the Deputy General Secretary met the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, and the management of the North West Department of Health in a quest to resolve the current impasse in the province. The meeting was at the request of the Minister.
The meeting noted that last night [Wednesday April 25, 2018] cabinet put the department under administration of national government and appointed a 11 member interministerial team to try resolve the problems currently engulfing the department. As the national union, we welcome this gesture by government and hope it will reverse most of the anomalies that has characterised the department in recent times. We commit to work with the team in trying to resolve the impasse but we will not abandon our mass action until our demands are met.
The meeting unanimously agreed that the current impasse is because of financial mismanagement by the department including corruption linked to outsourcing, procurement, servicing of medical equipment and human resources. The lack of good governance and proper use of finances has led to the near collapse of the public healthcare sector in the department. Patients have been on the receiving end of inadequate and sometimes non-existent healthcare services.