The Democratic Alliance is alarmed by a voice clip circulating in the Eastern Cape which states that Emergency Medical Services in the province will down tools from tomorrow (Wednesday, 11 December 2019). [Download Voiceclip] If the proposed strike of EMS personnel goes ahead, the Department will have blood on its hands as a result of its administrative failures and lack of concern for its own staff. The DA understands that …


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Emergency Medical Services workers are staying home on leave, but are still being paid overtime, because their names appear on the overtime roster for the month. This shocking revelation has been made by dedicated EMS workers, who are fed up with working their full quota of excess hours, while watching colleagues who sit at home and earn the same overtime hours while doing nothing. This amounts to looting of the …


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Since Friday last week, people declared dead at accident scenes in the Butterworth district and in the Buffalo City Metro have simply been left on the side of the road for hours, because Forensic Pathology employees are on strike over unpaid overtime and standby allowances. According to the striking workers, the overtime and standby allowances have not been paid since the April this year, despite promises made by the Head …


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Six operating theatres at Livingstone Hospital are standing empty while more than forty highly qualified personnel, including surgeons, theatre sisters, anaesthetists and auxiliary theatre staff sit idle, because of a bungled tender. Hundreds of patients are lying waiting in overflowing surgery wards, because the theatres have no linen. The collapse of the Livingstone Hospital is complete. Senior management is a misnomer at the facility. Those in charge at the hospital …


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There is plenty of water in the Xonxa dam, but due to maladministration, none of it is flowing out of the taps in Komani (formerly Queenstown). The water shortages are the direct result of the continued failure of the Chris Hani District Municipality to deliver on their mandate to deliver bulk water supply to the Enoch Mgijima municipality. As a result, schools have closed, businesses are struggling to keep their …


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The Enoch Mgijima Municipality owes Eskom over R198 million in debt and has been unable to maintain a payment arrangement entered into with the State-Owned Utility in November last year, as its debt has escalated. Keeping the power on is critical to keeping people in jobs. The Democratic Alliance is fighting tooth and nail to put Enoch Mgijima back on track. As part of this plan, the DA is calling …


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The Camdeboo Hospice in Graaff-Reinet, which has been caring for people with dread and terminal illnesses such as HIV, Tuberculosis and cancer for the past 21 years, faces closure in October because of a botched funding tender process. I have written to the MEC for Health, Sindiswa Gomba, to stress the urgency of re-opening the tender process for funding for this crucial service to the greater Graaff-Reinet community. The Department …


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Senior officials implicated in corruption around the devastating false medico-legal claims lodged against the Department of Health, should not be part of the premier’s task team to investigate the claims, they should be in jail. Medico-legal claims, in excess of R24-billion, have brought the Department to the brink of collapse, with the Auditor General (AG) raising serious concerns over its financial sustainability. If these officials are included, we will see …


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The Eastern Cape Department of Health is failing the people of this province through a wilful disregard in providing the most basic care, and a complete lack of compassion for the sick, the dying and the family of those affected. On the 11th of June, a Port Elizabeth woman waited for five hours in vain for an ambulance to transport her desperately ill brother to Livingstone Hospital. She eventually resorted …


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