Gordhan’s budget cuts still stand

FINANCE Minister Pravin Gordhan is expected to walk a tightrope in his medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday despite its being marred by sideshows, including tension in the ANC.

Parties and the country expect Gordhan to maintain fiscal discipline in the budget.

Fraud charges laid against Gordhan by the National Prosecuting Authority have been challenged in court by the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law.

The two organisations said yesterday that they had lodged an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court for the scrapping of the charges as they were baseless.

The urgent application followed their attempts to get NPA head Shaun Abrahams to provide more information on the charges, or drop them. They said they did not want state institutions to be used for nefarious purposes.

In his budget statement, Gordhan is expected to give a broad fiscal framework for next year, and outline whether there will be additional funds for higher education.

Gordhan introduced a range of cost-cutting measures and steps for departments to rein in expenditure. He said that in February, the government would cut expenditure by R25 billion in the next three years, and it had frozen some of the posts as one of the measures.

The ANC has been left divided by the Gordhan matter, with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa the first senior leader in the government and the ANC to warn against the use of state institutions to pursue Gordhan.

Several ministers have also backed Gordhan, including Thulas Nxesi of Public Works, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor, Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, and Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel.

EVEN the National Treasury is feeling the heat of “unscrupulous” lawyers who are “taking advantage” of medical mistakes by government employees by suing the state.

Although unable to attend the Pioneer Pharmacy (Professional and Facility) Awards in Durban at the weekend, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, in a pre-recorded speech presented on a big screen, expressed concern about hundreds of millions of rands that the national Health Department was spending a year in defending lawsuits.

Gordhan expressed a similar concern to that of health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo, who has accused lawyers of camping outside hospitals to drum up business.

The KZN Health Department is currently defending claims amounting to billions of rands. The cases were a result of medical negligence, damage to patients during medical treatment and failure to pay suppliers.

The minister could not attend the event at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre as he was in Cape Town preparing for his medium-term budget policy speech to be presented on Wednesday.

He said the country faced accumulated lawsuits to the tune of between R80 billion and R90 billion.

Gordhan accused lawyers of trying to make easy money off medical lawsuits after the government tightened the screws on the Road Accident Fund, which they had abused.

“The Road Accident Fund is becoming more circumspect and is not easily exploitable; they are now giving their attention to exploiting the health system,” he said.

For lawyers to pretend they were fighting for the rights of patients, when they knew full well it was for their business benefit, was “exploitation of the poor and ignorant people”.

“If you look at some of the provinces, R200 million a year goes out in medical expenses. Accumulative claims are R80 billion-R90 billion today, that the legal professional has lodged in one form or another.”

Durban lawyer Michael Friedman, who deals with cases against the provincial department, last week blamed health employees for the lawsuits against the department.

Gordhan lashed out at corruption in the public health sector and called for “tough and harsh criticism” against fraud. He was particularly concerned about the theft of bed sheets, medication and food, and the lack of care in certain hospitals, “corrupting the grand vision that we have to deliver a better health system”.

“We should ensure that civil servants become real civil servants,” he said.