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The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) has noted the statement from the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH), distancing themselves from the bogus “Dr” Matthew Bongani Lani. ‘Dr.’ Lani has been exposed as a fake doctor who has no qualifications. He claimed to have a medical degree from Wits University, but the university claims it has never heard of him. The HPCSA has also distanced itself from him, saying he is not registered with the Council, and what is worrying, is that this fake doctor has been dispensing medical advice, and even medication. His actions are a potential threat to the health and safety of the public. The Gauteng Department of Education has also just issued a statement claiming that there is no record of the bogus doctor having matriculated! A case of identity fraud has been opened up against the tik-toker by the real Dr. Sanele Sobani Zingelwa, who is a 2nd year medical intern at the Tembisa Tertiary Hospital.

The GDoH is doing everything possible to distance itself from the fake ‘Dr.’ Lani, when the truth is that they are partly to blame for making him famous in the first place. HAITU is not surprised this is happening because the department has a long history of endorsing, and employing people who are not suitably qualified, and they often do not even bother to do the necessary checks to confirm qualifications. They jumped on the band wagon and promoted a fake Doctor, because they wanted to appear relevant. 

The HAITU General Secretary Lerato Mthunzi says, 

“They do not know the people they employ. This reminds me of when I sat with their entire head office management on the yearly struggle of community service nurses and doctors, what was shocking is that they did not even know the numbers of all their employees, and they were unable to resolve absorption issues. Their obsession is to be on social media cutting ribbons every day (even for opening a toilet), and this is seriously clouding their judgement on more important issues.”

This issue highlights the serious problem which has plagued the department for many years, that being of ‘ghost posts’ or ‘ghost employees’. The department will declare employment rates but the numbers they claim, often do not match up with what is reflected on the ground.

There are other examples of these kinds of employment irregularities, such as where people are placed ‘out of adjustment’ because the HR has manipulated the Persal system, which is the system used to administer public service payroll. ‘Out of adjustment’ is when people are put in posts that they are not qualified for, but they claim that remuneration should be adjusted to match the level or the rank of that particular post. It is a situation where a porter or a cleaner is put on the persal system as a registered nurse, and they do not have the qualifications or the training for this. This is a major problem in the department, on top of the problem of ghost posts. Bogus doctors and nurses are also a serious problem for the department which they have failed to properly deal with. The department does not verify. They do not do proper checks and random or periodic audits to negate this problem. This is how corruption with poorly qualified people is normalised in the healthcare system.

HAITU is saying that it is not enough for the department to grandstand over this issue of the bogus “Dr’ Lani. What is needed is for them to urgently do an audit of all healthcare employees, and to clean out, or dismiss those who have been employed, without proper qualifications. These incidents will keep on happening, and there is likely to be another scenario where the department is exposed, because of their failure to ensure that people with proper qualifications, training and experience are employed in the department. Their failure to commit to this, is a threat to the health and well-being of patients and the community as a whole.

Issued by The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU)