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DA to assess the impact of loadshedding at Tembisa Hospital

Today, Wednesday,1 March 2023, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Tembisa Political Head, Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL will conduct an oversight inspection at Tembisa Hospital.

The purpose of the oversight is to assess the impact of the load-shedding at the hospital.

This follows allegations that there have been several deaths of minors reported at the hospital as a result of load-shedding. It is further alleged that the hospital has been unable to secure sufficient fuel for its generator and the parents of the deceased minors have not been informed of these challenges.

The DA will engage with the hospital management to ascertain whether these allegations are true or false and get further insight on the challenges that the hospital is faced daily.

We will also determine the impact of load-shedding in hindering this hospital from delivering quality and adequate health care services.

Members of the media are invited and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs.

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: 1 March 2023

Time: 10:00-11:00

Venue: Tembisa Hospital, 539-541 Reverend R.T.J. Namane Dr, Hospital View, Tembisa, 1632.

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DA to assess the impact of loadshedding at Tembisa Hospital

Tomorrow, Wednesday,1 March 2023, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Tembisa Political Head, Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL will conduct an oversight inspection at Tembisa Hospital.

The purpose of the oversight is to assess the impact of the load-shedding at the hospital.

This follows allegations that there have been several deaths of minors reported at the hospital as a result of load-shedding. It is further alleged that the hospital has been unable to secure sufficient fuel for its generator and the parents of the deceased minors have been informed of these challenges.

The DA will engage with the hospital management to ascertain whether these allegations are true or false and get further insight into the challenges that the hospital is faced daily.

We will also determine the impact of load-shedding in hindering this hospital from delivering quality and adequate health care services.

Members of the media are invited and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs.

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: 1 March 2023

Time: 10:00-11:00

Venue: Tembisa Hospital, 539-541 Reverend R.T.J. Namane Dr, Hospital View, Tembisa, 1632.

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Where is the proclamation to expand the Tembisa Hospital probe?

The Democratic Alliance is dismayed by the delay in the presidential proclamation that is needed to expand the probe into the massive Tembisa hospital payments scandal exposed by murdered Gauteng health official Babita Deokaran.

In December last year the SIU report found massive maladministration, fraud and corruption in the award of contracts by Tembisa Hospital to fishy companies. This involved about R1 billion over a three year period.

The SIU has applied for a Presidential Proclamation to extend its probe into the contracts, but there is no indication this is happening.

Meanwhile, revelations continue about people living the high life after scoring fat contracts for overcharged goods at the hospital.

The delay in expanding the probe fuels suspicions this is because politically protected people benefit from the contracts.

This includes Hangwani Morgan Maumela, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s nephew from his first marriage. Companies linked to him got R356 million from Tembisa Hospital in the last three years, as well as R22 million from Mamelodi Hospital, and R2.4 million from other hospitals.

Furthermore, the three companies owned by ANC bigwig Sello Sekhokho got 225 contracts worth R84 million in the last three years from other Gauteng hospitals. This was in addition to R14.5 million from 55 Tembisa Hospital contracts.

This shows that the fishy contracts were also at other hospitals, so the presidential proclamation should cover this as well.

I suspect there are high-level officials at Gauteng Health’s head office who collude in these hospital payment scams. They need to be exposed and prosecuted.

The DA will pressure on President Ramaphosa to expedite a broad investigation of Gauteng hospital contracts so that criminal charges are brought against all those who got rich while patients suffered because of poor resources.

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Tembisa Hospital probe should extend to all Gauteng Hospitals

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the SIU report which confirms the allegations of massive maladministration, fraud and corruption in the award of contracts by Tembisa Hospital to fishy companies.

Yesterday’s raid by the Hawks to obtain documents from the hospital should help in laying criminal charges against business owners and colluding officials.

The SIU has applied for a Presidential Proclamation to extend its probe of Tembisa Hospital contracts, but this should be extended to all Gauteng public hospitals.

For instance, according to replies to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature, the three companies owned by ANC bigwig Sello Sekhokho got 225 contracts worth R84 million in the last three years from other Gauteng hospitals. This was in addition to R14.5 million from 55 Tembisa Hospital contracts.

Another example is that companies linked to Hangwani Morgan Maumela got R356 million from Tembisa Hospital in the last three years, as well as R22 million from Mamelodi Hospital, and R2.4 million from other hospitals.

All implicated companies should be blacklisted immediately, and steps taken to recover money spent on grossly overpriced goods which may not even have been delivered.

I suspect there are high-level officials at Gauteng Health’s head office who collude in these hospital payments scams. They need to be exposed and prosecuted.

Hospital money should be spent properly to ensure the best treatment for patients, rather than squandered on fraudulent contracts.

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Lesufi should act on Tembisa Hospital report without fear or favour

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi should act without fear or favour tomorrow when he releases the SIU report on the Tembisa Hospital payments flagged by murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokaran.

Lesufi says four prominent business people have been implicated in the looting of the hospital’s finances.

It is likely they have connections with the ANC and have high-level accomplices in the Gauteng Health Department.

We already know about Mr Hangwani Morgan Maumela, who is a nephew by marriage to President Cyril Ramaphosa and reportedly “the don” of Tembisa Hospital with direct access to its procurement office. Companies linked to him have got contracts worth R381 million in the last three years from Gauteng public hospitals. He is reputedly close to Bejani Chauke, the president’s chief advisor, who is the front-runner candidate to be the ANC’s treasurer-general.

We also know that Mr Sello Sekhoko, the treasure-general of the ANC’s Ekurhuleni region, scored nearly R100 million in contracts from Gauteng public hospitals awarded to his three companies.

Lesufi should immediately blacklist all implicated companies so they never sell again to any Gauteng hospital.

It’s not just Tembisa Hospital as other hospitals have paid millions of rand for over-priced goods from fishy companies.

I expect more officials to be suspended and disciplined for collusion in corrupt contracts. Criminal charges should also be laid against them.

President Cyril Ramaphosa needs to extend the SIU investigation to all public hospitals in Gauteng so that all corrupt officials are exposed and dismissed.

There should be no half-measures in stopping the rampant corruption that hurts staff and patients in our hospitals.

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Tembisa Hospital endangers sick patients by discharging them early due to bed shortage

Tembisa Hospital is discharging sick patients because of a severe shortage of beds putting their lives in danger.

Gogo Mantoa Letitia Mokoena aged 65 was discharged from the hospital while she was severely ill. Her family alleges that she did not have bed soars before her admission to the hospital. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has received photos from her family which expose her septic bed sores and her current state.

It is saddening that sick patients, particularly the elderly are being discharged while still ill and how they are treated at this hospital. They are either waiting in long queues at casualty or in cold corridors for a bed to sleep in, or they are being discharged without receiving adequate medical care.

This level of incompetence and negligence at Tembisa hospital is concerning and is happening solely because of the shortage of beds in the hospital. The staff is not coping with the influx of patients; the situation is now out of control.

While the people of Tembisa and surrounding areas suffer, the Gauteng Department of Health is busy making endless promises rather than taking proper action.

The DA has for the longest time demanded that the Gauteng Department of Health ease the pressure at Tembisa Hospital by reopening Kempton Park Hospital. We again demand that the Gauteng Health MEC, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, commit and outline a specific timeline as to when her department will begin refurbishing the Kempton Park Hospital and where the budget will come from.

The DA will forward the MEC the images of Gogo Mokoena to see for herself the state she was discharged in, and she must hold those responsible to account.

The DA will continue to fight to ensure that the residents of Tembisa, Kempton Park and neighbouring suburbs have access to quality healthcare services.

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Shortage of beds and negligence allegedly led to a patient death at Tembisa Hospital

Tembisa Hospital continues to deprive sick and vulnerable people of access to adequate healthcare services due to overcrowding and a lack of beds to admit patients.

Last week, 8 November 2022, I received a frantic phone call from a resident concerning her grandmother, Sarah Dimakatso Ndou, aged 67 who was admitted at Tembisa Hospital.

It is alleged that Gogo Ndou was left to sleep in a wheelchair overnight at the casualty unit. Her family visited her the following day and were shocked to discover that she had not yet, been given any medical assistance.

Through my intervention with the Gauteng MEC for Health and Wellness, Nomantu Ralehoko, Gogo Ndou was finally allocated a bed. However, the family informed me that the hospital had discharged her even though she was visibly ill because of a shortage of beds at the hospital.

Several attempts were made to request her readmission but failed.

I further visited the hospital to assess why the hospital could not accommodate the patient and I witnessed a terrible situation as the hospital is overcrowded.

Several patients could not be accommodated into wards and were still in casualty; some had been in casualty for more than three days.

It is unfortunate that Gogo Ndou sadly passed away. Tembisa Hospital is in a dire state and needs more beds to be able to provide our people with adequate healthcare services.

This hospital in its bid to address its overcrowding challenge, cannot carelessly discharge patients who need to be hospitalised.

This is the same Tembisa Hospital that was exposed for paying over R200 million for face towels, buying leather seats, and paying over R2000 for skinny jeans whilst patients do not have sufficient beds.

I will also be writing to the MEC to demand an immediate investigation to be conducted regarding the circumstances under which Gogo Ndou was discharged and seek accountability to be taken by those who neglected and discharged her immaturely.

I have always insisted that Kempton Park hospital be reopened and will continue to do so. When it is reopened, it will reduce the pressure on Tembisa Hospital.

Tembisa residents cannot continue to be traumatized by the reoccurring rapid deaths of their loved ones.

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DA welcomes SAHPRA investigation of Tembisa Hospital payments

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the statement by SAHPRA (South African Health Products Regulatory Authority) that they are investigating alleged procurement by Tembisa Hospital of hospital consumables and medical devices in breach of the Medicines and Related Substances Act (Act 101 of 1965, as amended).

According to SAHPRA, they are working with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), and the Acting CEO of Tembisa hospital is cooperating with SAHPRA officials.

I wrote to SAHPRA earlier this week concerning 12 companies that got R381 million in contracts from Gauteng public hospitals in the last three years, but according to Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, they were not registered with SAPHRA. This information is contained in an official reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature – R356 million of the payments were from Tembisa Hospital, R22 million from Mamelodi Hospital, and R2.4 million from other hospitals

These companies are linked to Mr Hangwani Morgan Maumela, a nephew by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s first marriage, and also reportedly close to the president’s chief adviser Bejani Chauke.

Maumela has been identified as a central figure (the “Don”) in the Tembisa Hospital purchases that murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokaran flagged as “possibly corrupt, scoring R36 million in contracts last year in one month alone.

He also has ties to Bejani Chauke, who is Ramaphosa’s principal political advisor. They are neighbours in a plush Hyde Park complex in walking distance of Ramaphosa’s private residence.

There are significant penalties for non-registration with SAHPRA. My view is those non-compliant companies should be barred from doing any further business with the Gauteng Health Department.

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DA refers appointment of Tembisa hospital CEO to the Public Protector

Following the Gauteng Health Department’s bizarre about-turn on whether the Tembisa Hospital CEO Ashley Mthunzi was facing disciplinary charges when he was appointed last year, I have referred this matter to the Public Protector for investigation.

The Department accuses me of “sensational allegations” and “deliberate distortion of facts” after I stated that Dr Mthunzi was appointed even though he was facing a disciplinary charge which should have disqualified him.

I based my statement on an official reply by Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi (see here) in which she says as follows:

“On 15 September 2021, the acting Head of Department, Dr Sibongile Zungu approved recommendations that Dr A Mthunzi should be disciplined for contravening the Recruitment and Selection Policy. The Labour Relations Directorate was supposed to implement the said recommendations.”

When I asked who provided the false information that he had not been found guilty on any misconduct charge, the reply was that it was the former Acting DDG: Hospital Services Mr Freddy Kgongwana.

According to Mokgethi: “The Selection Committee did not have knowledge or information on Dr Mthunzi’s pending disciplinary hearing whilst at Pholosong Hospital”, and the reason is that “The Selection Committee was not aware as the information was not in his personal [file] nor in the register of pending disciplinary cases.”

It is clear from the above that Mthunzi was indeed facing a disciplinary hearing when he was at Pholosong Hospital, and that it was wrong that this information was not given to the Selection Committee.

Why is the department now contradicting an official reply by the Health MEC?

While they concede that the former Acting Head of Department signed a report recommending that Mthunzi be given a final written warning, which confirms that he was facing a disciplinary charge, they now claim it was invalid as they did not provide Mthunzi the opportunity to respond.

I do not believe this is true. It’s a cover-up by Mthunzi’s buddies in the department who are trying to shield him as they are themselves implicated in irregular activities.

It confirms my suspicion that there was a plot to get Mthunzi appointed at Tembisa Hospital, which was followed by a surge of payments to suspicious companies that murdered whistleblower Babita Deokaran says were “possibly corrupt”. She requested a forensic audit but it was never done.

The Public Protector is already investigating the alleged irregular appointment of the Department’s CFO Lerato Madyo after a whistleblower referred it to them and also a referral by myself to the PSC which passed it on to them.

We need to expose the sinister network at the Department that colluded in massive theft while patients suffer in under-staffed and poorly equipped hospitals.

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It’s all “coding errors” – no jeans, armchairs or hand towels at Tembisa hospital, but R734 million overspent

There are no skinny jeans, cloth hand towels or leather armchairs at the Tembisa Hospital – this is what I found when I visited this morning to check whether these items reportedly bought for R1.5 million had actually been delivered.

I was accompanied by local DA councillors Selby Thekiso and Philip Thamahane, and we met the hospital’s Acting CEO Dr Mohlamme Mathabathe and his management team.

We were informed that the hospital does not use cloth towels, only paper towels (see photo here).

There were no skinny jeans either. They said that “coding errors” were to blame. In the case of the towels the word “paper” was omitted, and monocryl sutures should have been coded, not skinny jeans.

They said that the 100 armchairs could be found in the ICU and high care wards.

We then visited an ICU ward and were shown adjustable-height chairs without side-arms (see photos here and here). When I pointed out that these were definitely not the leather wingback armchairs that were recorded as being bought for R5000 each, they again said it was a “coding error”.

These three items were part of hundreds of payments totalling R850 million that murdered whistleblower Babita Deokaran flagged as “possibly fraudulent” as they went to fishy companies and were all under R500 000, which means they did not have to go out to tender and were signed off by the hospital CEO.

I was shocked that last year the hospital overspent its annual goods and services budget of R320 million by R734 million.

This year’s budget is still paying off the massive splurge of suspicious payments last year.

Meanwhile, the hospital has 849 official beds, but has squeezed in another 351 beds to treat 1200 patients, with an overall budget of R1.7 billion, of which R1.2 billion is spent on personnel.

This highlights the need to spend the budget on needed items at the best price, instead of wasting money on unnecessary and over-priced goods.

The hospital said they have tightened up on purchasing procedures, which I hope curbs the abuses of the past.

I am a great believer in transparency in this matter. As they say “sunlight is the best disinfectant”.

The DA propose that all hospital purchases should be on a public website so that irregularities can be picked up speedily by competing suppliers.

This will halt the feeble excuse of “coding errors”.