Motsoaledi’s delusions of adequacy

YOU’D think by now we’d have got used to the arrogance of the public service employees whose generous salaries and perks we provide. Unfortunately, at the moment, one such person seems to believe that he is “Chairman Mao in 1950s Communist China”.

I refer, of course, to Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and his latest white paper on the proposed National Health Service.

Apart from the inescapable fact that, within 20 years, the ANC government has actually allowed the public health service to deteriorate to a point where facilities and services are worse than under the apartheid government, he seems to think that throwing more money into the deep black pit of incompetence, will somehow produce a better result than it has to date.

His latest proposals are nothing short of bizarre!

At the risk of challenging his delusions of adequacy, allow me to point out that, as a citizen of the country and a taxpayer, I will not be dictated to by a public servant, as to how I will spend my after-tax earnings.

I will decide which medical professionals services I will use, as well as the medical facility I will choose to visit. That is my constitutional right.

By the same token, any medical professional has the same constitutional right to decide where and how they choose to offer their services. Should the government deny them this right, there are any number of foreign countries that would be only too willing to make use of their expertise.

Finally, is the minister going to deny entrepreneurs the opportunity to invest their capital in establishing state of the art medical facilities, offering the latest technological medical equipment and the best medical professionals?

Of course not. Where would all of his ANC cabinet ministers go for treatment? Mitch Launspach Noordheuwel, Mogale City.

His latest proposals are nothing short of bizarre!