Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members, the main objective of this Bill is to amend the Mental Health Care Act, Act 17 of 2002. This new clause 76 will reduce the workload of the director-general by delegating powers to the appointed official in the national Department of Health. The aim is to have effective implementation of the Act.
This will enable the director-general to delegate some of the powers in the Act to appropriately trained officials in the office so as to improve service delivery with regard to state patients and mentally ill prisoners. The head of department may, at any time, withdraw a delegation or amend any decision made in the delegation of such powers.
The aim in point iii of government's Ten-Point Plan is to improve the quality of health services - that entails refining the detailed plan on improvement and immediately implementing it. The improvement we are talking about in point iv of the Ten-Point Plan is to overhaul the national health care system and improve its governance and management. Therefore, this amending Bill strengthens the ANC government's health road map of 2009 to 2014.
One of the priorities and tasks of the Department of Health is to focus on re-engineering primary health care. This needs a decentralised operational model and management, including new governance arrangements. According to the Bill, the current powers to be delegated include providing for the director-general to determine the transfer of state patients from detention centres to health establishments pursuant to court orders issued in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977. Also included are determining the transfer of state patients between designated health establishments upon an order issued by the review board; and reviewing the mental health status of state patients after six months from commencement of treatment, with rehabilitation services being continued on a 12-month basis thereafter.
The director-general is required to authorise the transfer of these patients, after considering their reports, in order to make a final decision. Therefore, this requires very careful consideration and its importance needs the Department of Health's attention. This amending Bill will also improve the turnaround time for the transfer of state patients without any further delays.
Kaloku, soloko sisithi kukho ukulibazisa kwiSebe lezeMpilo. Masikhe sijonge ke ngoku ukuba lo Mthetho Sihlomelo uza kusibeka phi na xa sisithi makungabikho kulityaziswa ... [Because, we always say there are delays within the Department of Health. Let us see where this amending Bill will take us when we say there should be no delays ...]
... because the referral and transfer of patients is always a concern. On a concern of the hon Dudley, let us convince one another, I think, in the committee. Yes, I'm glad that you said your party is supporting the Bill despite its concerns.
Regarding the 1992 Ready to Govern document of the ANC, most of us here were adults or at least already born at the time. We also had the Reconstruction and Development Programme document. I just want to remind everyone that at that time we had a government of national unity, which, to my understanding, was in place from 1994 to 1999. But we seem to forget - hon Segwale-Diswai. I am trying to respond to the complaint she spoke about. People on the left seem to forget about there being a government of national unity, because the first five years of this government started with all of us on board. But you never hear anybody saying that we had a government of national unity in the first five years of ANC government.
We did not build this unity then. Now we seem not to want to take this unity forward. All of us here were elected by South Africans, regardless of our political parties. Let us join hands if we want to move forward, because nobody is just here. We are here because we are representing the masses out there. [Interjections.]
About the response of the Deputy Minister on the issue of information, I think, Minister, it is high time we went to the media for information so that our society is not confused. This is because some of us here want to get votes out of nothing. That is why I say: if you want to better the lives of the people through health in this Parliament, let us move forward and leave our petty issues behind. We are here to build South Africa. We know that when we were saying, "let us all rebuild South Africa" in 1994 as the government of national unity, we meant that this country had been torn apart for more than 300 years. Therefore we wanted to mend this torn country. Those people who tore this country apart are now somersaulting, telling us that they care about our people more than we do.
Today, let us remind ourselves about that government. What did you do in those five years? This is because we were all together. That is why I am always worried when we say that the ANC has been in government from 1994. Yes, of course, it has been leading, but you were also in that government for five years. So, let all of us think back and remind ourselves of that in order to build this country again. This country is still torn apart, because the people who tore it apart are still with us. Now, they are dragging us backwards. We cannot go backwards. We are moving forward. The ANC supports this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]