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Expectant mothers sleep on the floors of the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in west Johannesburg, but Hospital CEO Nozuko Mkabayi spends about a third of her time working from home.

This information on her working habits is revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to Mokgethi, Mkabayi was appointed as CEO on 1 January last year, and since then she has only spent 182 days at the hospital.

Mokgethi says “she was appointed in the middle of the second wave of Covid pandemic and like all SMS (Senior Management Service) members she is allowed to work from home. She has a work mobile phone on which she is accessible 24 hours. She has an email address that she is accessible on 24/7 on-site and offsite. All the responsibilities assigned to her have been diligently delivered.”

I am astounded that a hospital CEO is not full-time at the hospital to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

No wonder she doesn’t know that pregnant women sleep on the floor, and she blames opposition parties for staging a video that highlighted this outrageous situation.

Doctors and nurses do not have the luxury of working from home, so how can a hospital chief set such a poor example?

I do not know of any other hospital CEO who worked from home even during the worst period of the Covid epidemic.

The Gauteng Health Department should insist that all essential hospital managers are physically at work to ensure that the best treatment is given to patients who suffer when hospitals are mismanaged.

Issued by DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, Jack Bloom MPL