The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the Northern Cape MEC, Maruping Lekwene, to urgently rectify the non-payment of sessional doctors and finalise outstanding overtime payments of health care professionals.
The DA received complaints from staff at facilities across the province, including the Warrenton Community Health Centre, where sessional doctors have not been paid for April and May, and have threatened to withhold their services until payment is made. Overtime payments of doctors and nurses at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberley have also been outstanding for up to ten months.
Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals form the backbone of the health care system. Yet, when financial pressures pinch, it is not the remuneration of the MEC or the Acting HOD that gets withheld, but the payments due to our health care soldiers.
The issue of late payments is not new, but a recurring problem and in respect of sessional doctors, we have been asking for interventions since 2022, with our most recent request for intervention submitted on 17 April this year.
The most basic employment obligation is timely remuneration. It cannot be that staff have to threaten to down tools, to receive what is due to them.
This repetitive breach of basic labour law by the health department has a knock-on effect on the health care system. It jeopardises morale, calls into question the department’s commitment to its workforce and compromises service delivery. Ultimately, it is the patients that suffer.
The DA has submitted a letter to the MEC and Acting HOD of Health, appealing for an urgent intervention. We will also address the matter at the upcoming health portfolio committee meeting on the budget. We want a commitment that the financial cushioning of the health and educations departments to the amount of R183,830 million, as announced in the retabling of the provincial budget, will ensure that remuneration obligations are strictly adhered to.
The Health Department is not a law unto itself. It cannot use people to perform services and then refuse to compensate them. It must value its staff and ensure that it prevents an exodus of health staff, who are growing increasingly frustrated with the uncaring provincial health department.