Hon Chairperson, hon members, I don't serve on this committee, but on 17 March 2013 the UDM led a march of the residents of the O R Tambo region in the Eastern Cape to hand over a memorandum to government about their grievances over service delivery in their region.
Chief among their service delivery complaints was the fact that the health services in the O R Tambo region are in a crisis. We therefore deemed it appropriate to take this opportunity to bring their complaints on health issue to the attention of this House and the hon Minister.
According to the Health System Trust's latest annual SA Health Review and District Health Barometer - a report which highlights three of five trends in the health sector - when measuring the state of health in accordance with a set of indicators, the O R Tambo District is ranked at the bottom of the 52 districts. Some of the reasons include, but are not limited to, the region having the worst death rate among the newborns in the country. Approximately 20,8 newborns per 1 000 births died in the district when compared with the national average of 10,2. This figure, hon Minister, is double the national average. Nearly triple the number of children under the age of five died in the district's facilities, compared with the national average of 11,4 per thousand births. The district also had the third highest rate of death of children under a year old.
While this happens, hospitals and clinics across the Eastern Cape continue to be inadequately resourced and maladministration is allowed to continue. To see this poor state of affairs, hon Minister, we challenge you to pay a surprise visit to all the hospitals and clinics in the O R Tambo region and the Eastern Cape as a whole.
You will see for yourself that all hospitals and clinics are understaffed, poorly managed and have limited medical supplies. Even the new Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha suffers from the same disease. We bring these matters to you, hon Minister, fully confident that you, as one of the top performers in the Cabinet of President Jacob Zuma, will give these matters your attention.
Finally, we wish to take this opportunity to wish you luck in all your endeavours to turn the Department of Health around. The UDM supports Budget Vote No 16. Thank you. [Applause.].