The Mercury report of 12 May 2010 (Poor suffer as health money goes to FIFA) is an unfortunate and misleading report.
The government’s obligation to provide health care services to the citizens of this province is constitutionally guaranteed. The department has a responsibility to deliver health care services from uMkhanyakude to Sisonke and eThekwini to Amajuba equitably.
When South Africa was granted the right to host the FIFA World Cup, there were obligations that we had to guarantee to the world soccer body. These include provision of adequate health care, public transportation, safety and security and other social and economic infrastructure to meet the requirements of the visitors expected to be on our shores.
These requirements coincided with our developmental goals which we had already set and provided for in our fiscal envelop. In KwaZulu-Natal, the Department of Health invested R813 million during the 2006/07 financial year increasing to R1 billion in 2007/08, R1,1 billion in 2008/09, R 1, 4 billion in the recently ended financial year (2009/10 financial year). In the current year our infrastructure budget is R1,6 billion growing to R1,8 billion by 2012/13.
Part of the investments outlined above, have indeed gone to ensuring that our province meets our government’s obligations in terms of its guarantees to FIFA. To this end, part of our resources have been invested for the purpose of improving infrastructure such as trauma units, isolation wards, ambulances, etc that would benefit the people of the province beyond the FIFA World Cup.
It would be expected that infrastructure development and improvement require sufficient planning time of at least two years. Infrastructure improvement works in our public hospitals have been two years in the making.
As a department we assure the public that the investments we are making are in line with our developmental path and will benefit the people of KwaZulu-Natal long after the World Cup has come and gone. They are not white elephants but legacy projects.
The Department of Health is grateful for the obligations that FIFA guarantees has placed on our government to ensure that these projects, which government had long planned for and will continue to implement beyond the FIFA World Cup, are completed and commissioned on time.
We are on course to overhaul health care delivery system to ensure that it responds to the health needs of the people we serve, who are mostly poor. The FIFA World Cup will never deter us from our goal of providing accessible, high quality health care to the people of KwaZulu-Natal.
For more information contact:
Chris Maxon
Cell: 083 285 0567
Issued by: Department of Health, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
12 May 2010
