The Democratic Alliance is demanding a review of security costs for Gauteng public hospitals which have soared from R655 million in 2022 to an astounding R2.54 billion this year. This squeezes out money needed to improve patient care.
According to Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature, the increase is based on “additional points of service provision”, and an increase in the regulated rates of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA).
But PSIRA pay rates for guards have only gone up at an annual rate of 7.38%, which is way lower than the nearly six-fold increase in security costs in three years.
As a percentage of the total Gauteng health budget, security costs have gone up from 1.1% in 2022, to 3.8% of this year’s allocation of R66 billion.
I asked the department to justify the huge cost of security for the Chris Hani Baragwanath, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg and Bertha Gxowa hospitals, who annually pay security companies R77 million, R72 million and R26 million, respectively.
They say, “the security assessment report conducted justifies the additional increase in the number of guards and it is in line with the PSIRA rates.”
Meanwhile, security guards at some hospitals complain about late payments by their security companies.
At Tembisa Hospital, guards have gone on a go-slow and staged protests because they have not been paid for three months.
Mafoko Security Patrollers, which guards the George Mukhari Hospital, has recently lost a court case against former employees because they did not pay their contributions into the provident fund.
It is alleged the security company at Bertha Gxowa Hospital is also not paying workers on time, nor paying over deductions into the required funds.
The department claims they have a monthly performance monitoring tool to ensure that security workers are paid on time and according to legislation, but this does not appear to be effective.
I suspect corruption as many security companies seem to be grossly over-charging while underpaying their workers.
The DA will continue to pressure the department to review high security costs to ensure value for money, while hospital patients suffer because of lack of budget to fix staff shortages, long queues, and broken equipment.