Tembisa Hospital looting: EFF, DA warn future scandals inevitable without top-level changes in Gauteng Health Dept

Thabo Shole-Mashao (standing in for 702's Clement Manyathela) chats to the EFF's Dumisani Baleni and the DA's Jack Bloom.

Listen below:

Opposition parties in Gauteng are intensifying calls for accountability following the Special Investigating Unit’s confirmation of R2 billion in alleged corruption at Tembisa Hospital. 

RELATED: Tembisa Hospital scandal a ‘crime against humanity’ - Advocate Ezra Letsoalo (Gauteng Health Portfolio Committee Chair)

Baleni and Bloom both criticise what they say are systemic failures within the provincial health department, with Bloom describing the scandal as "stealing from the poor and the sick."

Baleni says despite the severity of the findings, key individuals implicated in the alleged looting remain in their positions, and no major arrests have been made.

He also stresses the EFF's ongoing push for accountability, naming specific individuals who, he says, have escaped scrutiny despite benefiting most from the contracts flagged in the investigation. 

"What is most important here is preventative measures. The EFF has been saying that for as long as we have the tender system, it always breeds and opens the gates for corruption." 

- Dumisani Baleni, EFF

Bloom reveals that opposition members are often blocked from accessing health facilities and, in some cases, “smuggle” themselves in to see the true state of conditions.

"I'm very disappointed... we've tried to do oversight at Tembisa Hospital and other hospitals, and then we get turned away, and this is completely unconstitutional. I had to sneak into Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital just to check up on whether they have enough linen, and they don't have enough linen. I think that the present MEC for Health has been blocking oversight visits, and this is a frustration amongst all parties. What have they got to hide?"

- Jack Bloom, DA

Both representatives warn that without top-level changes in the department, future scandals are inevitable. 

"I think the scandals are going to continue in the Gauteng Health Department for as long as we continue to have the same MEC and the same head of department. Why do you think anything is going to change? That's the root of the difficulty... oversight committees are very valuable, and they can uncover certain things, but they can't change the personnel that's not dealing with day-to-day matters, and that's what you saw at Tembisa Hospital - there were these crooked officials."

- Jack Bloom, DA

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