DA adamant on dismissal of health MEC
The DA said it intended to use every means at its disposal to obtain Mashego's resignation
MBOMBELA – The Mpumalanga DA members took their call for the resignation of health MEC, Mr Gillion Mashego to a new level when scores of party leaders and supporters marched to the provincial legislature on Tuesday.
They handed a memorandum calling for his immediate resignation to Mr Jabulani Nkosi, chief director for human resources. The department is expected to respond within 14 days.
The party was joined by frustrated health workers from various health facilities in the province. One of them, Mr Kamogelo Chardi said he completed a nursing course funded by the department, but has not been promoted.
“The promise from the department was that when we complete the course they would increase our pay. That hasn’t happened. We have engaged with them for a long time and they haven’t responded adequately to our needs,” Chardi said.
The DA’s spokesman for health, Ms Jane Sithole, said they had requested the premier to remove Mashego before, for he is failing the department.
“Since he took over, health services in provincial hospitals have gone from bad to worse. There are endless examples that we can use to show that his leadership has made things worse,” she said.
Sithole cited the department’s alleged failure to implement a turnaround strategy recommended by the South African Human Rights Commission in 2014, such as the destruction of expired medicine worth R5 million, staff shortages and delayed appointments and the underspending of its budget by R83,5 million in the 2015/16 financial year.
According to a report from the department, it has abolished 12 836 vacant posts, of which 3 120 were funded. The party said the unspent money could have been used to improve basic health care.
Sithole added that the party intended to use all the means at their disposal to obtain Mashego’s resignation.
The health department’s spokesman, Mr Dumisani Malamule said the DA was on a drive to tarnish the image of the MEC, who was working hard to improve the state of health-care facilities in the province.
“The MEC doesn’t sit in his office writing statements and brag to the media about what he is doing, but he is always on the ground, visiting health facilities to understand what is happening,” he said.
Malamule added that the department was not moved by the DA’s actions. “This is a political stunt that is aimed at winning votes. Everybody knows that since the MEC came into power in 2014, he has done a lot. He has build clinics and turned things around.”
Malamule said their human-resources directorate was meeting with the parties affected by the staff-training issue. “The department has sent out a team to deal with it and we will soon be able to resolve it to everyone’s benefit,” he concluded.
