Poor hospitals – but rich cadres
· Citizen
We worry about our story today that Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mpumalanga is a crumbling mess… because of the very real possibility that accounts like this are becoming so commonplace they may soon start losing their power to shock.
Visit freshyourfeel.org for more information.
We should be outraged that this hospital has had no hot water for four years, that there is a chronic shortage of beds and that patients use the floor, stretchers and even wheelchairs to sleep while they wait to be attended.
The problem is that many provincial hospitals are just like this. No surprise, too, given the scale of the looting at just one of them – the Tembisa Hospital – where more than R2 billion in dodgy payments to ANC-connected comrades is now being probed.
A person who steals public money is evil; but someone who loots funds which are meant to bring relief to the suffering of other humans is particularly reprehensible.
On top of the theft, is the incompetence and couldn’t care-less attitude which prevails even in humanitarian sectors, thanks to the ANC’s cadre deployment policy where loyalty, and not ability, is the selection criterion.
And the National Health Insurance scheme will probably make things worse… because there will be more money to filch.