On Thursday morning, the spokesperson of the Health Department, Mondli Mvambi, took the OFM News team on a tour of the two buildings visited by the SAHRC Commissioner, Adv. Bokankatla Malatji, last week. First up was the laundry area, where the senior manager responsible for health programmes and support, that includes laundry services for the entire province, Joe Mokgatle, estimates that 85% of the washing machines in the building are in mint condition and being utilised.

He says currently only one washer, dryer and roller iron are not functioning. “We have a service provider contracted by the department through the infrastructure unit overseeing major repairs. Minor repairs are done by our own artisan on the floor,” says Mokgatle. He says the broken machines at the building require major repairs. The tour of the facility and Mokgatle’s explanation form part of the health department’s rebuttal to the interview done with Malatji, in which he alleges during his visit he stumbled across a pile of dirty laundry which was not washed due to broken washing machines. He says the staff told him they have been complaining for months on end about the broken machines, to no avail.

Mvambi proceeds to criticise the oversight visit. “The machines are working, as you can see. What we would prefer is that when external bodies are doing oversight visits, they should not only rely on the information provided by the employees on the floor. Because employees on the floor have their own interests when they give out information to external bodies. They may be aggrieved over any other labour issues and they may find it convenient to give information about things that are not there.”

He says had the Corporate Services division at the department been notified about the SAHRC’s visit, they could have made the relevant managers available to clarify certain details.

The Health Department has also set the record straight regarding the caterer issue. The hospital used to have a contract with a company to purchase and prepare the food, but after the contract expired, they decided not to renew it and instead insource the employees. This then meant the hospital needs to outsource the service of purchasing the food, which the Corporate Services division is busy with. He says the lack of a contract for purchasing food has no impact on the service. 

Despite the employees that have been insourced, the kitchen remains understaffed, something which hospital management acknowledges and stresses they have improved upon. Nine food supervisors and one dietician are amongst the many support personnel that have been hired since March 2019.

OFM News