Moyahabo Mabeba
From a distance it looks as if Matlala Hospital has been abandoned for months.
The Limpopo hospital looks like it is surrounded by mountains of rubble. But on closer inspection it is clear that the mountains are in fact weeks and weeks of patients’ laundry.
Residents say patients are subjected to filthy conditions as laundry has been piling up for the last six months. The excuse is that the waste removal contractor’s trucks are broken down.
According to Makalakatje Phasha, chairperson of the Sekhukhune Residents Forum, the community was worried that the provincial department of health is continuing to pay the contractor, even though there are no services being rendered.
“After all this time the community has had to accept lame excuses justifying the looting of state resources by hospital management and the contractor,” said Phasha.
“Patients are forced to bring their own clothes and bedding as the hospital is unable to provide for the sick. We have already sent complaints to the department but our grievances have fallen on deaf ears.”
Forum members say the trouble at Matlala Hospital is due to poor management, as the department has not appointed a suitably qualified CEO and the hospital is under the administration of acting senior managers.
Spokesperson for the department, Neil Shikwambana dismissed the allegations that laundry has not been collected for six months as untrue.
Shikwambana said: “The service provider collects laundry twice a week. The service provider delayed the collection on Thursday but did so on Saturday.”
Shikwambana said “Dr Sarah Masola, the Clinical Manager, is the acting CEO.”
This position of CEO became vacant in 2019 and was advertised but no suitable candidate was found.
“It was readvertised in 2020 but the process could not be concluded due to budget cuts by the Treasury,” he said.
Community activist Johannes Mamabolo said almost all the hospitals at Ga-Sekhukhune are in a bad condition.
“The rickety structures they call hospitals need urgent attention. People have lost confidence in the health system,” he said.
