The DA Mpumalanga has raised concerns about maternal deaths at state-owned health facilities in the province.
DA Mpumalanga MPL, Jane Sithole said it is as if Mpumalanga has lost the fight to save mothers and their unborn babies.

“The maternal mortality rate has skyrocketed in the past year from 94 in 100 000 to 234 in 100 000 in tertiary hospitals and 149 in 100 000 in regional hospitals. We are saddened by these tragic deaths as many families are left without mothers and we cannot afford to lose a single mother.”

Sithole said according to the provincial Department of Health’s revised annual performance plan for this financial year, hospitals in Mpumalanga have inadequately trained clinicians and are crippled by a shortage of skilled professionals, equipment and material resources.

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She added that the increase in maternal deaths can be contributed to these issues that still need to be attended to.
During an interview with Lowvelder, Sithole said these issues started when former the MEC for health, Gillion Mashego was still there.

“It appears as if it is now affecting MEC Sasekani Manzini. We started talking about these issues years ago,” she explained.

“The DA warned Mashego in 2018 that he was playing with lives, when the targets on maternal mortality were changed to match the actual number of deaths for that year and therefore the department felt there was no need to implement any interventions,” she said.
“The Department of Health and Manzini have stated that they now need to prioritise the training of clinicians, the appointment of skilled healthcare professionals, to procure and maintain equipment and consumables. The DA believes that she is playing catch-up with maternal deaths in Mpumalanga and she needs to hold officials accountable for these deaths.”

She said as the DA, they have written to Manzini, asking her to establish a task team and to investigate why hospitals did not receive at least the material resources, why material shortages are happening and to hold officials accountable within her department.

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“The DA has also requested Manzini to forward what training has been identified and how many clinicians will be trained and by when will the training be completed.”
The spokesman for the provincial Department of Health, Dumisani Malamule, denied that the maternal mortality rate has increased.

“The maternal mortality rate of the province has not increased as per the department’s 2019/20 Annual Report which will soon be in the public domain. The rate is reported as an average for the cases in the whole province as each level of care contributes to the total average for the province.”
He added that it should be noted that the regional and tertiary hospitals take complex maternity cases that are referred from the community health centres and district hospitals.

“Mpumalanga, like other rural provinces, has a shortage of specialists.”
According to him the department has partnered with academic institutions for provision of specialised care.