Gauteng residents continue to suffer due to a shortage of ambulances, yet a fleet of brand new ambulance are gathering dust

Gauteng residents continue to suffer, and in some cases, lives are lost, due to a shortage of ambulances. Yet, there is a fleet of brand new ambulances parked at the Dunnottar Clinic in Nigel, Ekurhuleni.

It is unacceptable that lives are put in danger because of a slow emergency line response while a fleet of G-set ambulances is abandoned at the Dunnottar Clinic.

These ambulances have been abandoned at Dunnottar Clinic for five months without being dispatched to their respective clinics.

This was discovered during the DA’s oversight inspection of the clinic.

Please see the photos here, here, and here.

The DA has received numerous complaints from whistle-blowers that ambulances take up to 3 to 8 hours to respond to an emergency.

We also conducted an oversight inspection at the Angelo Kater depot where there are at least 50 abandoned ambulances. We were informed that these ambulances are waiting to be refurbished and get minor repairs.

The DA demands answers from the Gauteng MEC for Health, Nomathemba Mokgethi, on why a fleet of brand new ambulances has been abandoned at the clinic while there is a shortage of ambulances in the province. We also want to know when the ambulances at Angelo Kater depot will be fixed.

This current government is gambling with the lives of our people, and we will not allow it to happen. We demand that MEC Mokgethi ensures that these ambulances are dispatched to their respective clinics to serve our residents. The DA is the only party that is prepared to save lives and ensure that emergency services are adequately resourced.

Were skinny jeans and armchairs delivered to Tembisa hospital? Department won’t tell so I will see for myself

The Gauteng Health Department has refused to confirm whether over-priced skinny jeans, luxury armchairs and hand towels were delivered to the hospital after paying R1.5 million for these items.

In a written reply to my questions regarding the purchase of these items by the hospital, Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi responded as follows:

“The office of the Premier has appointed the special investigating unit (SlU) to investigate all matters related to the alleged fraudulent activities in Tembisa tertiary Hospital that were flagged by the late Ms Babita Deokaran.

A process of scoping and gathering more information on top of what is currently being publicised regularly in the media. To that extent, the Department is unable to respond to all matters raised in the question from (i) — (x) pending the finalisation of the investigations.”

This is a poor excuse not to answer at least some of my questions on these suspicious purchases, including whether the items were actually delivered.

Why is the department scared to answer this simple question?

If they won’t tell me, I will find out for myself.

According to a News24 investigation, the hospital paid R850 million to fishy companies for over-priced goods, including R500 000 for 100 leather armchairs, face cloths at R230 a piece, and 200 skinny jeans for young girls at R2500 each.

Meanwhile, patients suffer because of a shortage of beds and equipment at this overcrowded hospital.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 21 September), I will visit Tembisa Hospital at 10am and see if I can find out if the armchairs, jeans and face cloths are at the hospital.

Media are welcome to attend.

New Gauteng Health MEC must get it right this time

The newly-appointed Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi 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.

Top Gauteng Health officials not security vetted

Acting Gauteng Health Jacob Mamabolo has disclosed in an oral reply to my questions at yesterday’s sitting of the Gauteng Legislature that his department is conducting a review of all security vetting processes of senior officials.

He was responding to my questions on how many senior officials had been appointed since January last year without passing a security audit.

I am concerned that this information is not currently available but I am encouraged that he has taken the matter seriously by doing a security review of appointments which will be made public when completed.

I suspect that a number of officials appointed without security vetting were involved in the awarding of corrupt PPE contracts.

One of the suspended officials under investigation by the SIU is Ms Thandi Pino, who  was appointed as Chief Director Supply Chain Management in March this year without a security clearance “because the department is in a process to procure an agency to conduct vetting”. This was an astonishing admission by Mamabolo in an earlier written reply to my questions.

How can it be that the department failed to do the required security vetting for such a key appointment?

The lack of security vetting is a symptom of the deep rot in this department where proper procedures have been ignored for many years so that unscrupulous people can benefit.

I hope that the review that is being done leads to accountability for the alarming lack of security audits.

 

Gauteng Speaker refuses debate on urgent health MEC appointment

I am disappointed that Gauteng Legislature Acting Speaker Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane has turned down my request for an urgent debate today on the need to appoint a new Health MEC as soon as possible.

In my motion I noted that Bandile Masuku was placed on special leave on 30 July 2020 and dismissed as MEC for Health on 9 October 2020. Jacob Mamabolo was appointed as Acting Health MEC while still performing as MEC for Roads and Transport.

My motivation for this debate is that it is vitally important to have a new Health MEC as soon as possible to take critical decisions with undivided attention concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and a myriad of health challenges and backlogs.

Another factor is that there are many high-level positions at the department that need to be filled urgently, including Head of Department, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Director: Supply Chain and Asset Management.

I wanted to call on Premier David Masuku to appoint a new Health MEC by the end of this week, but the Acting Speaker’s decision has protected him from accounting to the Legislature in this matter.

According to Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, she did not deem the matter as urgent as there is no timeline for the appointment of a permanent MEC and the present Acting MEC is doing well in the job.

This is a partisan argument instead of an objective decision to allow the debate so that the Premier can make his own case for delaying the appointment.

It is unclear why Makhura has not yet appointed a new Health MEC even though his own political party has called for this post to be filled urgently. I hope it is not because he wishes to reinstate Bandile Masuku as Health MEC if he is ultimately cleared of corruption in connection with the PPE contracts. It is already clear that Masuku failed in not preventing this corruption in the first place.

Makhura needs to tell us when he intends to fill the Health MEC position which should not be held hostage to internal ANC divisions on this critical matter

Gauteng Premier should rule out reinstatement of failed Health MEC

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes that Gauteng Premier David Makhura has relieved Dr Bandile Masuku of his responsibilities as Health MEC because of an adverse SIU report finding, but has left the door open to reinstate him if the final SIU investigation clears him of acts of corruption or collusion in the PPE corruption scandal.

According to Makhura, the SIU has found that Masuku failed to execute his functions in compliance with the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

I am astonished that Makhura is prepared to overlook Masuku’s political failure as the SIU confirms the obvious fact that he failed to prevent the massive corruption that occurred.

Contravention of the Constitution and the PFMA is a serious matter, and the outcome in this case has been about R2 billion irregular expenditure and inferior PPE that endangered the lives of health workers in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Makhura himself pointed out that senior officials were being disciplined or resigned because they did not take action to prevent the corruption. This surely applies to the political head as well.

It seems that Makhura wishes to rescue a friend and political ally rather than enforce high standards of accountability. This undermines the fight against future corruption.

The Premier should rule out any reinstatement of Masuku as Health MEC and appoint a new MEC who can fix the deep rot in this department.

Internal ANC politics should not absolve Gauteng Health MEC

According to reports there is an internal ANC battle over whether suspended Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku should be cleared of involvement in the R2 billion PPE corruption scandal.

It appears that the ANC’s provincial integrity commission has made damning findings against him, including that he should have exercised better oversight in preventing the corruption, and did not address the conflict of interest arising from his wife’s friendship with Khusela Diko, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, whose husband scored a multimillion PPE contract.

Masuku has contested the findings against him so the report may be changed in his favour.

The ANC’s provincial executive committee has yet to consider the matter, but Masuku’s allies, which include Premier David Masuku, are reportedly seeking to save his political career.

Masuku’s fate should not depend on internal ANC wrangling.

It is clear that he is politically accountable for not preventing the corruption and he should therefore go.

It is particularly damning that he insisted that the Department’s Chief Financial Officer Kabelo Lehloenya resigned at the end of May due to personal reasons even though he knew she was facing disciplinary action for the fishy PPE contracts.

We are also waiting for the report of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to determine the true extent of the criminality in this matter.

Internal ANC politics should not absolve Masuku of his political accountability for the PPE scandal – he must go and real efforts made to clear out the rot in the Gauteng Health Department.

Gauteng Health headless in the middle of a pandemic

The announcement that Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku will be on leave of absence for at least four weeks in the wake of a tender corruption scandal exposes the complete brokenness of ANC rule in Gauteng. Real leadership cannot be expected from the appointment of Jacob Mamabolo as acting Health MEC at this crucial time as he has no health background or prior knowledge of this department.

Masuku was brought in to fix the long-running management problems in the Gauteng Health Department and was energetic in filling vacant hospital CEO posts and responding to certain pressing issues. Yet, he could not explain away the sudden resignation of Chief Financial Officer Kabelo Lehloenya at the end of May amidst allegations of PPE contract irregularities.

It is utterly incredible that this department is again embroiled in scandal a few short years after the deaths of 144 mental patients in the Life Esidimeni tragedy.

It seems that corruption is too embedded in the ANC to be easily removed, and the usual vultures swooped in to take advantage of the millions being spent to counter Covid-19. Meanwhile, many hospital staff do not have proper PPE and have become infected by the virus.

We now have a headless department in the midst of a pandemic, and Premier David Makhura should also be held accountable for this disaster. He appointed Masuku and failed to effectively monitor what was happening in his department. He failed with Life Esidimeni and he is failing now.

Long delays for Covid-19 test results at Joburg hotspot

The worst hit COVID-19 area in Gauteng is Ward 58 in Johannesburg, but test results for many of its residents are outstanding for more than 10 days.

This ward is near the inner city and includes Mayfair, Fordsburg, Homestead Park and Vrededorp. Testing sites for this hotspot were put up on 4 and 5 June, but many people have not yet received their results, including DA Ward Councillor Alex Christians. According to Christians, health inspectors wishing to trace contacts are frustrated as they are told that testing specimens were not marked and they cannot pick up the people they are enquiring about.

Another example of slow results was experienced by DA Ekurhuleni Councillor Khetha Shandu who was tested at a mobile testing station in Tembisa on 22 May and only got his result three weeks later on 13 June.  He was fortunately negative but an undiagnosed infectious person can potentially infect many others.

The Gauteng strategy of mass COVID-19 community testing needs to change urgently in view of the continuing slow turn-around times and the current backlog of 23 000 tests in the province.

Medical experts have been calling for a better use of limited testing capacity in order to give priority to vulnerable health workers and hospital patients.

It is unfortunate that the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) has made false promises that it could test 36000 people a day, but the national backlog is now 63 000.

Mass community testing makes no sense when results can take as long as three weeks.

Gauteng province claims to have screened 7 458 034 people, which is about half the total population, and to have traced 100% of 17 713 COVID-19 contacts. These figures are frankly not credible.

The provincial government should not make false claims. We now see an enormous jump in cases that dictates a change in strategy to focus testing efforts on priority cases and areas with results within 24 hours.

Psychiatric medicine shortages disrupt patients in Gauteng

Psychiatric patients in Gauteng have suffered over the past year from shortages of nine drugs due mostly to manufacturing constraints and tender issues.

This is revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

The medicines in short supply include three anti-depressants, three anti-psychotics, and two epilepsy treatments.

According to Masuku, although the items were out of stock “the suppliers were delivering limited quantities which were evenly distributed to the facilities. Patients were given limited quantities so that they do not go home without medication. Where there are alternatives patients were given the alternative medication.”

Masuku claims that the impact on treatment of patients was “minimal”. I disagree as I have had many complaints from psychiatric patients that they had adverse reactions from the switching of medicines and sometimes ran out of medicines for a period of time.

It is unfortunate that Gauteng is dependent on national health tenders for psychiatric drugs as they are often badly handled.

The Gauteng Health Department needs to be more nimble in finding alternative suppliers to ensure that there is always a full range of drugs for vulnerable psychiatric patients.