MULTICHOICE CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S ANSWERS AN INSULT TO OUR INTELLIGENCE
EMPLOY LOCAL DOCTORS
THE death of the medical profession in South Africa is but one of many examples of the government’s failure to prioritise service delivery.
While one embraces the notion of the National Health Insurance (NHI), in pursuance of their noble idea the Department of Health unfortunately lacks in planning and consultative processes.
The fact that many doctors, dentists and THE SATURDAY Star of May 26 refers.
Firstly, the arrogance of the chief executive, Calvo Mawela, answers many questions that many of us, the premium subscribers, have been waiting for.
The drivel that he has spewed out is an insult to our intelligence. Ask most people what they think about Dstv/multichoice and one would be shocked at the negative comments received. It is for this reason that subscribers are leaving and more will do so as soon as they are connected to fibre. This arrogance has been going on for years, with a dogmatic attitude by the management of Dstv/multichoice because they had no competition for a long allied health-care workers are unemployed is a shame on the country and on a ministry that has been praised for so long yet is currently the worst-run, with almost all provinces under administration.
Any country that has teachers and medical professionals in need of unemployment and having to leave the country, only to be replaced by foreign-trained doctors, must answer for it.
In the December holidays, hospitals are closed because doctors are on holiday. Even during apartheid we always had doctors on standby. Could the so-called advisers of the time and could do as they pleased.
In a nutshell, it boils down to a take it or leave it attitude – to hell with subscribers’ needs. This is definitely not a modern business approach to customer service.
If they had been offering value for money, they would not have lost so many customers. They cannot start blaming other parties who offer streaming services because of their own inability and arrogance in not looking after their customers.
Multichoice has been a major dictator in this field for far too long. In fact, I wrote about them in a local newspaper way back in January 2018 on this same subject and received an e-mail from them trying to minister please attend to this matter?
The NHI will not work without having personnel like doctors, dentists and allied workers.
Is the department encouraging medical xenophobia? Please employ local doctors, otherwise stop training them and let the Cuban doctors do all the work, with doctors competing with tenderpreneurs who, in the main, are poorly equipped for what they do.
This has been confirmed by the auditor-general’s report released this week. We South African doctors are then labelled unpatriotic when we go to New Zealand. explain the need for repeats.
Nothing has changed since then and this nonsense about repeats is nauseating and an insult to the intelligence of many of us who pay for the full bouquet.
Incidentally, Showmax, which they offer, is only available if you have a certain type of decoder, so one has to spend more on upgrading to the latest decoder.
Dstv/multichoice is becoming a rip-off. This is probably the real reason for them losing subscribers. It now seems that they are getting their just deserts. If they had happy customers and their pricing was in line, they would not be losing the number of subscribers they are now.
The foreign-qualified doctors should be encouraged to go back to their own countries so the health care there improves.
As it stands, our hospitals and clinics are treating 60-70% foreigners, who collect medicine at Thembisa, Katlehong, etc, to sell or as stock to send back to their people.
Our Department of Health is bleeding. We need to address the immediate needs of skills retainment and development, and have long-term goals like the NHI. In the meantime, we are putting the cart before the horse. Mr Minister, please see the realities.
Anonymous GOVERNMENT FAILING THE ILL
I AM writing this letter because I am extremely upset today. One of my housekeeping ladies became ill and had to stop working in September last year. She had been in our employ for nine years.
We tried repeatedly to complete all necessary documentation for the Department of Labour to get her boarded because she was no longer able to perform her duties.
Despite getting all doctors’ letters and documents signed and confirmed by the doctors lodged with the UIF, she never got paid one single cent.
She was 31 at the time and was treated as if she was committing a crime.
She was sick, not lazy!
What do we pay UIF for? This is not the first time this has happened to one of my staff members. Is this just another corrupt government department? We eventually came to an agreement with CCMA to retrench her so we could pay her a lump sum to help her survive.
She became desperately ill over the weekend and, because she did not have a reference letter, King Edward Hospital would not admit her and she died on her way back home in the car.
What kind of a country do we live in if the hospitals will not even assist dying people?
I am beyond disgusted with the Labour Department and King Edward Hospital.
Jo Munton, Durban
SIT DOWN, coloniser. Let us tell our own stories.
Like it did with slavery, conscientising will again begin with a book.
First we will burn all the history scribbles you gave us. Then we will change the syllabus.
How long have our ascendants been learning to be “good employees”? How long have they aspired to be white because you kept all the “good jobs” for your kind?
Don’t think we are not aware you still do. Even if a black man holds the same position as a white, don’t act like the white isn’t getting paid more.
Where are all the great African woman and their contributions to history in your scribbles?
Watch as we resurrect their legacy. It will live on the lips and in the hearts of our girls.
They will sing songs of Ahmose-nefertari, born a royal heiress.
They will ululate the genius of Nzingha, the greatest military strategist that ever confronted the armed forces of Portugal.
Lanterns will fly for Funmilayo Anikulapo-kuti.
Land expropriation will be taught through the eyes of Ellen Khuzwayo.
Our children will know that she was born on June 29 in Lesotho, 1914.
They will know she grew up on her grandfather’s farm in Thaba Nchu and inherited it when she was 16.
No one ever told them in your scribbles that she soon lost the farm when it was declared a “white area”.
We, a generation swimming up a sinkhole, will tell them.
We are breaking the cycle of pain.
No more will Barbie be the standard of beauty for our girls.
They will all want to be a Winnie Mandela.
It is time now. We will teach them to be emperors and monarchs.
It is time now. They will start businesses and become artists.
They will trade with each other and build communities.
Before a single rand exits the confines of Soweto,
It would have touched every hand that holds this township when it spins on its axis.
Such will be the norm countrywide for townships from Alexandra to Zandspruit.
Send smoke signals to your forefathers, coloniser.
We are going to Europe to reclaim the 9 to 15 million souls involuntarily shipped to your homeland and the Americas.
Don’t say a word, coloniser. In these parts, when elders dialogue about matters of our history, you sit and listen.
They will be ready. Our bloodline will not be too preoccupied with living their lives that they won’t read about slaves who fought back:
Gasper Yanga, Nat Turner, Khuntha Khinthe, Django. And many that had their spirits crushed, and buried under the soles of their feet where they stood with lash-scared backs against a wall murmuring African ancestral hymns in front of a firing squad.
Sit down, coloniser.
Classrooms will know that you are Dutch traders who stayed.
We will tell them we fought tooth and nail against your forced labour model.
How the Khoikhoi communities of the south-western Cape were not so lucky.
How they disintegrated within a matter of decades.
The savages that you call us have long been reflected in your actions.
We are going to take back the land and give you back your mirrors.
Our young will master their heritage and celebrate it 364 more days a year.
They will pick themselves up and recollect their wrist movement designed to lay maths, astronomy and calligraphy of Azania’s origins on the manuscripts of Timbuktu.
As you were, coloniser. kashiefa.ajam@inl.co.za sheree.bega@inl.co.za rabbie.serumula@inl.co.za karishma.dipa@inl.co.za shaun.smillie@inl.co.za shain germaner@inl.co.za sameer.naik@inl.co.za