Critically ill patients fight for their lives, and some die, while waiting for an ambulance that takes hours to arrive, if at all. This is not only traumatic for them but for their loved ones. The sad reality is that the Eastern Cape’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is collapsing. Ambulance response times run into hours, not minutes, and that’s if they come at all because the centralised emergency call centre …


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Tourism and the associated jobs are under siege in this province, because the Department of Environmental Affairs is spending too much money on consultants, and not enough on environmental protection. There’s not even enough money for law enforcement officers to drive the length and breadth of this province to protect the environment and save us from poachers. The MEC for DEDEAT, Mlungisi Mvoko, must immediately ring fence funding currently spent …


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Patients have been irrevocably maimed, their limbs amputated, and lives forever changed, because of Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth’s failure to implement a directive from the Provincial Legislature to pay suppliers of critical medical equipment at Livingstone Hospital. The Democratic Alliance has been informed that at least three people needed their limbs amputated due to complications from postponed surgeries requiring critical medical equipment. We will write to the Minister of Health, …


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The recent tragic events at the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park, Buffalo City, where 21 children lost their lives in a tavern, brings into stark focus the failure of the Eastern Cape Liquor Board (ECLB) to enforce compliance regulations across the province. The MEC for DEDEAT, Mlungisi Mvoko, must call the ECLB to account for their failures and must take proactive steps to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening …


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The irresponsible court application by the Department of Health to deprive victims who suffered medical malpractice of compensation has thankfully been thwarted by the Makhanda High Court. National Government must take note and immediately place this bankrupt and financially reckless Health Department under administration in terms of Section 100 of the Constitution before it collapses. The court ruling means more than R400 million will have to be paid out to …


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The Eastern Cape MEC of Health, Nomakhosazana Meth, has blamed Covid-19 to explain why her Department failed to implement a resolution of the Eastern Cape Legislature that would see that the suppliers of Livingstone Hospital be paid so that life-saving surgery can be performed. Three weeks ago I tabled a motion in the Legislature, where I raised the plight of patients at Livingstone Hospital who cannot be operated on because …


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The Department of Health has no choice but to immediately act against the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Livingstone Hospital after the Democratic Alliance’s motion on the matter was unanimously adopted in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature during a sitting this afternoon. The motion called for the Department to immediately settle all outstanding accruals to Johnson & Johnson and other service providers for vital equipment required in orthopaedic surgeries. Download …


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It takes 100 days to repair an ambulance that has been in an accident and 50 days to have an ambulance serviced in the Eastern Cape. This shocking truth was revealed in response to questions set by the Health Portfolio Committee during the recent round of Budget Appropriation meetings with officials from the Department. Currently, there are 412 ambulances in the province instead of the 650 required by national and …


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Almost four years ago, a young mother lost her unborn baby in the street due to gross negligence on the part of two Emergency Medical Services employees, but to this day, they have never faced a disciplinary hearing. This, despite the Department stating in response to a Parliamentary Question in July last year that the employees were formally charged and the disciplinary process would resume as lockdown restrictions had eased. …


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