‘Funding must not be an excuse’
Money to be made available to help the Western Cape battle the pandemic
The real fight that’s confronting us is the fight of trying to reduce the number of infections, break the cycle of infection and make sure whoever is sick recovers and make sure South Africans can look back and say there was coronavirus but we survived
HEALTH MINISTER ZWELI MKHIZE
SIYABONGA MKHWANAZI
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has warned the Western Cape to stop complaining about the shortage of staff, beds and other critical health-care supplies in the fight against Covid19, saying billions would be made available to the province.
The Western Cape provincial government yesterday, including Premier Alan Winde and top health officials, complained they needed more than R3 billion to fight the pandemic.
In the presentation, health officials told Ramaphosa that they would require 5 272 additional staff members, but they were constrained by the budget to recruit more people. They said more beds would also be required during the peak period.
Winde said they expect about 100 000 infections in the next few months.
But Ramaphosa said, while money was not an issue, he was concerned that the province had fewer beds than required for the expected rise in infections and deaths in the coming months.
He said the pandemic would be around for the next 18 months to two years.
“Not having staff members is not going to be an excuse I will accept. We must find them. Money is not an issue, saving lives is.
“We are at war. We are fighting a life and death war. We must identify staff members that we need to bring in,” said Ramaphosa.
He said secretary of defence Sam Gulube could help rope in defence military personnel and Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize would help the province to recruit staff members from other provinces.
“The Western Cape is the epicentre of Covid-19 infections and this concerns us deeply as the leadership of the country. We are pleased Minister Mkhize and those he works with are going to remain focused on what needs to be done in the Western Cape.
“There have been suggestions that the Western Cape wants to excise itself from the country. We are a unitary state and the Western Cape cannot be seen to be charting their own path,” said Ramaphosa.
He said he had noted concerns raised by the province on the shortage of funds to get more staff members.
“This is a war we must win. We can’t sit back and be defeated by Covid-19 on the basis that we did not have enough staff members,” said Ramaphosa.
For a province with a 77% of the country’s Covid-19 death toll, more beds were needed to deal with the peak.
“I am not happy with the limit, you must over-provide. The worst is still to come,” Ramaphosa said.
He said when he was in Kwazulu-natal, they had under-provided beds but he whipped them into line and that province now had an oversupply of beds.
He expected the same to happen in the Western Cape.
“With this pandemic, we must be ahead of the curve and never found wanting. Because we are at war, we must over-provide,” said Ramaphosa.
He also wanted to hear more about contact tracing which reportedly helped in Mangaung, Free State, to deal with those who were infected in a church.
Ramaphosa also said he was aware of the province’s Covid-19 testing backlog of 27 000 cases and this would have to be addressed.
On the funding, he said there was already R20bn that had been set aside for Covid-19 and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni would table an adjusted budget on June 24.
Funds would be reprioritised in departments.
“We know you need up to R3bn; funding will be made available,” he reiterated, adding that this would help in staff recruitment, procuring more beds and tightening measures to reduce infections and deaths.
“The curve must be flattened. The whole country is focusing on what is happening here in the Western Cape so that they can learn,” said Ramaphosa.
Not having staff members is not an excuse I will accept Cyril Ramaphosa
PRESIDENT