Hon Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, hon members and guests, during the apartheid era most, if not all, African people, especially blacks, were living in poverty and degradation. Most African people earn very little to survive. Our history has been dominated by colonialism, racism, apartheid, sexism and repressive labour policies. We are definitely not going back but moving forward to a free and better South Africa.
There will be no political democracy if we still have people living under adverse conditions of poverty, with no housing, food and other basic needs such as access to health care. The public health care system provides low- cost care to millions of poor South Africans, and for this reason it needs to be prioritised, nurtured and revived so that it will be able to offer patients more compassionate care and a higher quality of medical attention.
Constitutionally, everyone has the right to have access to health care services, and the Constitution further stipulates that no one may be refused emergency medical treatment. This clause simply implies that the issue of the doctors' strike and the emergency medical staff strike should be given urgent attention by government to ensure that this right is respected. I will focus on the critical effects that this budget will have on quality service delivery, the realisation of the Batho Pele principles and the patients' rights charter.
After the briefing by the Department of Health on their strategic plan for 2009-10 to 2011-12 and the budget, the biggest question was the alignment of the budget to the overall plans of the department. The two do not correlate. There is not sufficient money for the department to cover the programmes as outlined in the strategic plan.
Hon Minister, the health institutions are falling apart and will continue to do so, if the situation does not worsen, if this budget is not urgently reviewed. For example, the biggest hospital in the southern hemisphere, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, is one of the tertiary hospitals deteriorating day by day. It is faced with problems that undermine the quality of health care, including: a lack of resources, be it financial, human, equipment or drugs; a lack of management and administrative capacity; a financial crisis and mismanagement; a poor and inadequate referral system; a lack of commitment and discipline; a high attrition rate leading to shortages; a lack of information communication technologies; and poor procurement processes with the Gauteng Shared Service Centre as the middle man. The list goes on. I'm very happy that the Minister has already alluded to this.
The amount of funds requested by the Department of Health for a comprehensive HIV/Aids plan for the financial year 2009-10 was R1,4 billion, but we only received R200 million. What a gap! Recently the Human Sciences Research Council released the results of their 2009 survey on HIV prevalence and related behaviour. The results indicated that, irrespective of the decrease in prevalence among young children, there is an alarming increase of HIV prevalence in young women in their twenties. We are concerned.
Motsamaisi wa lefapha la bophelo, Setjhaba sa rantsho se a lla, se a bokolla ke lefu la kwatsi ya bosolla tlhapi.Ha ho phomolo malapeng le meyeng ya batho. Moqebelo o mong le o mong, Sontaha se seng le se seng ke mafu. Ho bolokwa batho ba hlokahetseng ka lebaka la 'HIV' le 'AIDS'. Uwele hle! Motsamaisi bana ba setse ba le bang malapeng. Ba hloka bahlokomedi mme ba qobelleha ho hlokomela bana ba bang. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Hon Minister of Health, black people are concerned. They are anxious about HIV and Aids. There is no rest in families and in the souls of people. People who die from Aids-related diseases are laid to rest every weekend. Please help! Hon Minister, many families are headed by children because there is no one to look after them.]
Those are child-headed families owing to HIV and Aids.
Ho iphapanya le boima bona ba tsuba dithethefatsi, ba nwa jwala, ba kena mekgatlong e sa lokang ya bakgothotsi, ba rekisa ka mmele ebe qetellong malapa a qhalana. Lefatshe le a dubeha jwalekaha le se le qadile. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[In an attempt to reduce the weight of their plight, they use drugs, drink alcohol, join criminal gangs and get involved in prostitution. These ultimately lead to the break-up of families. The world is changing for the worse.]
The cut in the budget for the hospital revitalisation project has serious implications for the deterioration of health infrastructure conditions and the poor work environment of health workers.
The DA believes that the provision of quality health care to all who live in South Africa is a key priority and should be given urgent attention. In order to avoid a total collapse in health care, the Minister should put smart - and I emphasise smart - interventions in place. To minimise these effects the government should, amongst other things, prioritise health programmes to ensure better health and therefore a better life for all; ensure that the appointment of health institutions managers is based on what a person can do, their capabilities, and how hard they can work - not on who they are and who they know; empower these managers, not only to comply, but to perform as well; have strict control measures in place to ensure accountability and responsibility by all - this includes from top management down to the lowest level of operational people; and cut out the middleman, the Gauteng Shared Service Centre. Why should the GSSC buy the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital's milk, sugar and all that? We need to start buying direct. The government should also do a statistical analysis, which includes a staff count, in relation to staff-client ratios of all staff categories. This includes the allied medical personnel, particularly the radiographers in hospitals.
The DA further believes that no country can prosper without an affordable, effective and easily accessible health system. [Interjections.]