EFF SEEKS HEALTH BOOST
EFF supporters, residents and nurses, led by the EFF’s commander-in-chief Julius Malema, took part in a protest march to Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto yesterday to demand quality public healthcare. Malema was launching the EFF’s campaign for the nationwide provision of quality public healthcare outside the sprawling Soweto hospital’s premises yesterday. Another group of EFF supporters also marched to Mamelodi Hospital in Tshwane.
EFF leader Julius Malema has challenged President Cyril Ramaphosa to forego his R3.6 million annual salary, telling a crowd of supporters in Soweto “because you’re already a billionaire”.
Malema was launching the EFF’s campaign for the nationwide provision of quality public healthcare outside Soweto’s sprawling Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic Hospital yesterday.
Referring to Ramaphosa, Malema said: “Your salary could be used to improve the conditions at Bara Hospital.”
“Stop getting a salary. Let that salary be used to improve Bara. It is the biggest hospital, but it has degenerated.
“Cyril’s house in Cape Town which he bought with his own money, is more beautiful than a children’s ward at Bara,” Malema announced.
The EFF has vowed to “expose” all health facilities, including “white medical doctors” in the country who are allegedly ill-treating black patients, especially the aged.
Prior to Malema’s address, Lerato Madumo-Gova – a nurse at Bara and president of the Young Nurses Indaba – painted a bleak picture of the working conditions at that hospital, including the alleged refusal by the Gauteng Health Department to employ more nurses.
Madumo-Gova made the scathing attack in the presence of the hospital’s acting chief executive Sifiso Maseko and several senior managers, who were there to accept the EFF’s list of demands.
“This is 2018, it is a year of quality public service. People are still standing in queues at Lillian Ngoyi Clinic.
“People are still standing in a queue here at Bara. It might be the biggest hospital in southern Africa, but it is the most dilapidated.
“Healthcare is not a priority for the ANC, instead they used R55 billion on flavoured condoms,” Madumo-Gova said.
The government had actually budgeted R3.5bn for the flavoured condoms.
She added that there were more than 320 nurses who recently qualified at the Bara Nursing College, but were yet to gain employment, saying this was despite a dire shortage of nurses at the institution.
Malema urged EFF members to constantly carry their smartphones when visiting Bara and to take videos of health professional who are allegedly disrespecting patients.
Gauteng Health Department has vowed to deal with all the complaints raised in the EFF’s memorandum, including other complaints brought by ordinary residents.
“We encourage health users not to accept substandard services and to raise their concerns with facility managers if they are not happy with the services rendered.
“All complaints brought to our attention are followed up and steps are taken against those who are found to have done wrong,” said the department’s spokesperson Lesemang Matuka.
In Pretoria, EFF members marched to Mamelodi Hospital to demand the delivery of quality health services to communities.
EFF leader in Tshwane Benjamin Disoloane said they had interacted with local residents, who raised complaints about the poor services rendered by hospital nurses, among others.