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The termination of 706 Limpopo nurses is a reflection of the ANC government’s true priorities – not the health of the people of that province, but power.

If the ANC government truly cared about health care provision, they would engage with Treasury to ensure that all critical posts are filled as a matter of urgency, they would ensure that consequence management were implemented to weed out all incompetent and corrupt managers and personnel that waste and steal crucial resources, and they would upgrade and develop health infrastructure to ensure that patients received quality care in safe facilities.

Instead, they bulldoze the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill through Parliament so that they can pretend to care about poor and vulnerable people come elections 2024.

The Limpopo Department of Health spokesperson, Neil Shikwambana, indicated that the province currently has 1 200 vacant posts, while in March last year the Department indicated a vacancy rate of nearly 41% for professional nurses. And the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, recently indicated that 340 posts for speciality nurses were vacant in Limpopo.

The Department's lack of foresight for the havoc that the termination of hundreds of nursing contracts would cause just months after the province launched its ambitious plan to allow 24 hour-access to clinics, is a clear prediction of the chaos that will follow the implementation of the NHI Bill.

The DA will submit parliamentary questions to the Minister to determine how many temporary nurses are still employed in all the provinces and when their contracts come to an end. We will also continue to do everything in our power to safeguard the country’s limited pockets of quality health care and prevent NHI implementation.

Issued by Michele Clarke MP - DA Shadow Minister of Health