Hon Chair, let me start by correcting one problem, something which may have been misunderstood. When I announced the inception of the human papillomavirus vaccine by February 2014 in our schools, I didn't mean that poor children who find themselves in Quintile 5 schools will not be covered. Every child who comes from a poor community, regardless of which schools they find themselves in, will be covered by the HPV vaccine. We chose Quintiles 1 to 4 schools for a very good reason.
It is a pity Ntate Kganare ... Oh, he is back. Yes, I really need to empower you, Comrade. [Interjections.] I think you need to give yourself time to come to my office, and I will give you facts about the issue of the cost of health care. You will also see why the National Planning Commission dealt with this matter you are dealing with. You will also understand what forced the President to come up with Obamacare. Your problem is that you are using your anger and your heart to reason very complex world issues. Please come and we will ensure, Comrade, that you will then start using scientific facts.
Hon Ntapane, I wish to thank you very much for your positive contribution to this debate. I can assure you that we are well versed in the issues you have raised about the O R Tambo District Municipality. Actually, last week, the Deputy Minister and I specifically asked for a special executive council meeting with the Eastern Cape to talk about this issue. The premier obliged and was given four and a half hours to discuss these issues. We dealt with them thoroughly; we have agreed on plans which will start being unveiled very soon.
Hon Kopane, please don't do this to our country. I am really appealing to you. Don't be tempted to do this to our country. Firstly, the figures you have quoted about expenditure in the pilot districts of the National Health Insurance are December figures, when a lot of equipment was bought but not paid for, because it was not yet delivered. They differ very much from the March figures when that has happened. A total of R78 million had already been spent by the end of March and R50 million committed for equipment bought for 901 facilities in the 11 pilot districts of NHI. Together, these two figures add up to R128 million, so don't quote last year's figures.
That is not the biggest problem or reason that I appeal to you. [Interjections.] I know that happens in politics. I appeal to you specifically about the tragedy that you are bringing to our country, by balkanising it. Firstly, nurses in this country do not belong to any particular province. They belong to South Africa, regardless of which corner of the country they trained in. [Applause.]
Doctors in this country belong to the whole country. They are trained at only eight medical schools, schools which some provinces don't have. It is a tragedy to start comparing various parts of the country as being in competition with each other about death and diseases. It is a tragedy. Should Gauteng then stand up and start boasting that it has more doctors than Mpumalanga, for example? We know they have. The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital alone has 800 doctors. That is more than the total number of doctors in the whole of Mpumalanga. Should Gauteng celebrate that? No, that is wrong. We cannot compare that in a boastful manner. [Interjections.]
Death from the colliding epidemics in the country is well researched and well documented in The Lancet by scientists, not by us politicians who might have ulterior motives. It is documented by scientists who are driven by the search for the truth. They have outlined ... There is a special chapter in The Lancet about why the Western Cape happens to differ from quite a number of parts of the country. It is not something to celebrate. It is absolute inequality. Can South Africa proudly celebrate inequality in the country? [Applause.] It is not me. It is the researchers in The Lancet. When you quoted those figures of mortality, you should have quoted that chapter. They show it precedes our existence. It is historical right from the time that South Africa came into being, and they outline that there scientifically.
I won't stand here in front of this House to celebrate the fact that tuberculosis is the highest in the Western Cape, which it is indeed. When I spoke, I didn't celebrate that. I told you we gave you one of only two GeneXpert diagnostic testing machines, and there are only two on the whole of Africa. We put one in eThekwini and one here, because of the problems of tuberculosis. I cannot stand up and celebrate that there is a high prevalence of tuberculosis in the Western Cape of the DA. It is a tragedy. I cry because of that. [Interjections.] It is not something to celebrate.