Department’s refusal to pay waste removers could cause a bacteria crisis followed by disease
11 November 2015
The DA’s recent visit to Solid Waste Technologies (SWT) – a national contractor to the Department of Health (DoH) for the removal of medical waste – revealed the DoH’s failure to pay its bills for the removal of discarded materials, including hazardous waste, from state hospitals. This could lead to a full-blown national health and environmental crisis if not dealt with immediately. The hazardous waste includes bacteria carrying substances such as used syringes, contaminated blood and human tissue.
It is appalling that the DoH can allow South African’s to be exposed to potential diseases that arise from hazardous medical waste. I will accordingly ensure Parliament understands the full-scale risks of the departments negligence.
I will furthermore pay surprise visits to hospitals, medical waste depots and disposal facilities over the next three weeks to see for myself and I will brief Parliament on my findings. If necessary, I will request a meeting with Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, to discuss the crisis and to call for an urgent intervention.
Recently, SWT, has been forced to terminate its contract to remove waste from both the Gauteng and the Free State because of years of unpaid bills to that company.
SWT owner, Edgar Adams, told the DA this week that he had ended the contract his company had with the Gauteng provincial health department to remove waste in Gauteng in August this year, and that he did the same in the Free State in September.
The failure by the Health department to pay its bills means that SWT has been running its contracts in these two provinces at a loss and has, now been forced to walk away in desperation.
Recent media reports have shown the results: a warehouse used by SWT in Bloemfontein was recently found filled to capacity with semi-decomposed discarded materials from hospitals and laboratories, including bio-hazardous waste and human tissue. A similar situation emerged at the company’s Johannesburg City Deep facility earlier this year.
The massive systemic failures in government administration are not only impacting on crucial service delivery to South Africans; they are also bringing businesses to their knees whilst exposing South Africans to countless bacteria and diseases. The DoH should be keeping South African safe and not exposing them to such health risks.
The payment systems in Gauteng and in the Free State appear to be in a shambles – paying service providers in dribs and drabs, claiming to have lost invoices – and eventually running into payment backlogs into the millions. Service providers in the end have no option but to walk away, at huge cost to the health and hygiene of communities.
The removal of hazardous waste is a key tenet of service delivery in any functioning country. It is in the public interest that the disposal of hazardous waste is done properly.
The DA is also in the process of investigating what appears to be endemic corruption in tenders for waste removal.
Citizens of South Africa should be able to rely on their government to ensure that hazardous waste is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way and that the health and hygiene of communities is not in any way impugned in the process – and that this is done in a corruption-free environment.
Issued by Dr Wilmot James, DA Shadow Minister of Health, 11 November 2015
