#KZNOncologyCrisis: No amount of window-dressing can save MEC Dhlomo
29 January 2018
The Democratic Alliance notes with contempt an invitation by KZN Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo to members of the media to attend a breakfast meeting tomorrowmorning “in order to reflect on the progress made in healthcare service delivery in the province since he assumed office in 2009”.
If ever there was a cheap ANC publicity stunt this must be it. There is no amount of window-dressing that can change the fact that, under MEC Dhlomo’s watch, this Department has gone from bad to worse.
It is disturbing that while his Department has for all intents and purposes collapsed, MEC Dhlomo is delusional enough to host a function lauding his so-called successes. This while he remains among KZN’s worst human rights violators, having been found guilty by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) of preventing adequate cancer treatment to hundreds of patients.
It is also under MEC Dhlomo’s watch that:
- KZN is experiencing an unprecedented oncology crisis which shows no sign of ending with some urology patients being told to wait seven years or longer to see a specialist or doctor;
- The ill-fated 2015 decision to freeze critical posts continues. An example is Addington hospital’s gynaecological ward which has been forced to reduce bed numbers from 30 to 10 which has had a dire impact on both staff and patients;
- The Department’s medico-legal expenditure has soared. The MEC’s efforts to blame lawyers – who he claims are out to fleece the Department for their own gain – is yet another desperate attempt to cover up the shortcomings of his own political leadership;
- The Department's finances are in chaos with over-expenditure at its highest ever while the Department is also ranked third worst nationally in terms of unauthorised and irregular expenditure;
- The Department has, for all intents and purposes, been placed under administration with both the National Health Minister and KZN’s Finance MEC announcing intervention plans; and
- The Department continues to limp along with medicine shortages. While the MEC argues that there is a mechanism in place to identify this, the DA is aware from oversight visits and ongoing calls from casualty and out-patient departments that these deficiencies remain a daily reality.
Tomorrow’s event is little more than a commercial advertising a non-existent product. The fact is that the MEC can never answer the hard questions with the truth. Accountability is absent and the reality is that KZN’s Health Department will only get better once he is gone.
The DA again calls on Premier Willies Mchunu to fire MEC Dhlomo. Every day that he fails to take action sees him become more and more complicit in this crime against humanity. MEC Dhlomo must go.
Issued by Imran Keeka, DA KZN Spokesperson on Health, 29 January 2018
