Still no outcome for Vusi Mlambo after 6 months

Next week Wednesday, November 5, will mark exactly six months since a worker at Barberton General Hospital was suspended – yet he has not yet been formally charged.

Vusi Mlambo was suspended on May 5 and the Department of Health, has not yet formally announced the charges.

Mlambo has been suspended with full pay and he received his salary for the past few months without reporting for duty.

Departmental spokesman, Dumisani Malamule, couldn’t be reached, either by telephone or email, at the time of going to print.

Public service and administration minister Collins Chabane recently said he wanted to speed up or change the system of dealing with suspensions. He said if someone was suspended with full pay, the suspension must be reviewed within 30 days.

But in the case of Mlambo, it has now dragged on for more than 90 days.

The official opposition in the province, Democratic Alliance (DA), had also raised its concern about this situation.

Jane Mahlangu, DA spokesman for health, said the department had been plagued by high absenteeism, losing 90 135 work days as a result of sick leave.

“On top of that a whopping 1 093 employees left the department and vacant positions currently stand at a staggering 5 025. High absenteeism puts tremendous strain on other workers. People in need of medical assistance stand in long queues and often go home without being attended to as a direct result of staff shortages in our health facilities across the province,” said Mahlangu.

The department was placed under the curatorship in July 2014 as a result of seven long years of decline in health services in the province.

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