Public Protector Adv Thuli Madonsela will this week interface with communities of the Northern Cape about the health, poverty and general issues service delivery issues in their province. The Public Protector will be in the province as part of her office’s on-going national stakeholder dialogue, which aims to help strengthen government’s ability to deliver on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), paying special attention to matters of health and poverty. Improving health and reducing hunger and poverty are among the eight MDGs South Africa committed to achieving by 2015.
The Public Protector has already visited six other provinces. The critical areas under the microscope include infant mortality, management of healthcare facilities (such as hospitals and clinics), quality of care, resources, procurement, working conditions of staff and other general health issues. On poverty, the Public Protector looks at whether maladministration has hampered any government programmes that are aimed at alleviating poverty. These include social grants and the processing of applications for important documents such as IDs, among other things.
During her three-day stay in the province, the Public Protector will engage with various stakeholders, including members of provincial legislatures, government, traditional authorities, civil society, political parties, organised women groupings and the general public. She will also conduct unannounced visit at pre-identified healthcare facilities to interact face-to-face with healthcare professionals and patients.
The Public Protector’s first stop in the province will be in Postmansburg on Tuesday where she will preside over a public hearing on poverty and health matters. The event will be attended by local communities.
The Public Protector will then proceed to Kimberly on Wednesday, where she will interact with academics, chief executives from public hospitals, representatives of provincial executives and those from the health sector NGOs. The Public Protector will then meet with the parliamentarians in the provincial legislature on Thursday to report back to authorities on the complaints she would have received on the previous days.
The focus of this year’s dialogue is informed by the complaints the Public Protector has been receiving and newspaper reports on the current state of affairs in health facilities such as hospitals and clinics. There have also been sporadic complaints from health caregivers such as doctors. While recognising the excellent work done by the Department of Health, the public hearings seek to reinforce that work by focusing on trends in maladministration, which have resulted in three systemic investigations the Public Protector is currently conducting.
The first event will take place as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Venue: Postmansburg Hall, Postmansburg
Time: 10h00
The second event will take place as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Venue: Kimberly, Provincial Legislature
Time: 10h00
The third event will take place as follows:
Date: Thursday, 22 August 2013
Venue: Kimberly, Provincial Legislature
Time: 9h30
All the above events are open to the media. Members of the media can confirm attendance with Mr Oupa Segalwe on 072 264 3273 or by mail to oupas@pprotect.org or Mr Salvation Mokgatlhe on 079 031 5589 or by mail to salvationm@pprotect.org.
Official #hashtag for the visit in the province #PPinNC
For more information, contact:
Kgalalelo Masibi (Ms)
Spokesperson: Public Protector South Africa
Tel: 012 366 7153
Cell: 079 507 0399
E-mail: kgalalelom@pprotect.org
