EFF calls for Bay to take back control of clinics

● EFF motion draws support in council

The EFF in Nelson Mandela Bay wants the city to regain the function of running its own clinics and ambulance service.

The majority of parties in the Bay council agreed, saying the Eastern Cape department of health has failed the city and collapsed the health care system since taking over the function in 2012.

The EFF submitted this as a motion to be discussed at the city’s next council meeting, which was set seven days from the last council meeting that was held on Monday.

EFF regional chair Amandlangawethu Madaka said the party understood that health was a provincial and national government competency but they believed the department of health was not living up to the challenge.

“The department of health took our local clinics in a pilot programme for the National Health Insurance and our clinics have since collapsed and are under siege with constant break-ins.

“Now this metro can’t protect these clinics by placing security guards, of which we have plenty, because we don’t want National Treasury to view such expenditure as irregular or wasteful,” he said.

In his motion, Madaka said that as the primary health-care service provider in the metro, the provincial health department had demonstrated incapacity in a number of areas.

“This is concerning as the country is approaching a [Covid-19] peak from July [and] the Bay as the epicentre in the province has an alarmingly increasing number of health worker infections as well as systematic issues that are collapsing health services,” he said.

As of Tuesday, the metro had recorded 7,827 Covid-19positive cases.

“The district has not been able to appoint a permanent district manager since 2018 as there is a poorly managed and unresolved underlying dispute,” Madaka said.

The Herald recently reported that the closure of clinics had led to an increase in the overflow of patients at Dora Nginza Hospital, resulting in expectant mothers waiting 12 to 16 days to have caesareans.

COPE councillor Siyasanga Sijadu said she would support the EFF’s motion.

“We have a department of health in the province that is bankrupt, a [health] MEC [Sindiswa Gomba] who said on live television udikiwe (loosely translated to tired) and corruption that has resulted in poor delivery,” Sijadu said.

“Clinics just like libraries are more dysfunctional under provincial leadership than they were under municipal leadership. It is time for the city to take back the function.”

United Front councillor Mkhuseli Mtsila also supported the item, adding the metro health system had collapsed.

“We want to deliver services efficiently because local government councillors are inundated with complaints from residents about the state of clinics but we can’t respond as that function is not ours,” Mtsila said.

DA councillor Nqaba Bhanga said the DA had held the same position ever since the province took the function away from the city.

“Clinics were better served in local government. We serviced and maintained our clinics ourselves and this has long been the position of the DA.

“It’s the right thing to do and DA MPL Jane Cowley is busy with something similar because such a motion can’t be solved by the municipal council but by Bhisho,” he said.

PA councillor Marlon Daniels said the issue raised by the EFF was a serious matter, and he would support it.

ANC regional co-ordinator Luyolo Nqakula said the party was yet to “interact with” the EFF’s motion.

“It’s new to us and once we as the ANC interact with it we will be able to apply our minds,” he said.

ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom said before such a decision could be made, there were a number of things the city needed to consider, including a cost analysis.

“In principle, it would be better for a clinic to be managed by a municipality than province,” he said.

Gomba’s spokesperson, Judy Ngoloyi, failed to respond to questions about the EFF’s motion.