/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

While the German government has seen the value of South African nurses and their vital role in a functioning health system, the ANC government is happy to lose at least 20 000 nurses rather than address the country’s own nursing crisis.

South Africa’s shortage of nurses has been repeatedly highlighted over the past few years. The DA, unions, nurses, experts and health stakeholders have pleaded for intervention. And despite the role of staff shortages on the declining public health sector, the ANC government continues to fail to address this.

While we welcome the opportunity, the nurses being lured to Germany should have been employed by the Department of Health to fill South Africa’s vacancies. Our nurses are often overworked and expected to give quality health care in the direst of circumstances. They are forced to work in unsafe facilities where basic sanitation and access to medication and necessary supplies are not a given. They will surely not have to face these horrendous conditions in Germany. And they should not have to face it here.

The truth is that the ANC government made the bed we all now have to lie in. While the first decade of ANC governance were fairly prosperous, the Zuma and Ramaphosa years have been characterised by corruption, cadre deployment and ineptitude. And instead of taking responsibility for the mess they created and using every opportunity to turn the tide, the ANC government is failing to meaningfully address the nurse shortage, have bulldozed the destructive National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill through Parliament, and is continuing to block the private sector’s efforts to train nurses.

It is time South Africans realise that the ANC does not have their best interests at heart. After nearly 30 years in government, the ANC has destroyed its only legacy, and is busy destroying what’s left of the country in the process.

Issued by Michele Clarke MP - DA Shadow Minister of Health