The Democratic Alliance is demanding that Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko account for at least eight ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leaders appointed to boards of Gauteng’s public hospitals.
The appointees include Ziyanda Ncuru, a Gauteng youth league deputy secretary who reportedly boasted: “Sana eGoli zi big days, young people zi board members. Zisikelwe iyoung lions.” (Young lions have received their share.)
Other ANC appointees include: Masabata Ramollo, a member of the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC), Jennifer Latifi, Gauteng youth league deputy chair; Thabo Matome Twayise, a PEC member appointed to the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital; Khumo Thandeka, from the Johannesburg region; Vuyisile Plaatjie, a PEC member placed at the Sterkfontein psychiatric hospital and is apparently employed in the office of premier Panyaza Lesufi; Ashley Mabasa, a PEC member; and Onkgopotse Thompson-Peete, Tshwane regional secretary for the ANCYL.
The board members will receive an estimated R10 000 for every board meeting they attend. These are outrageous gravy train appointments that will not help our struggling public hospitals. Hospital boards need a mix of people with real expertise and local community ties. I suspect there are far more ANC appointees to the boards than those so far revealed.
This cronyism looks like what Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabana did when trying to appoint ANC cadres as chairs of Seta boards. It adds to a long list of reasons why the DA has been calling for the Health MEC to be fired, including a court judgement that her department’s failure to provide cancer treatment was unlawful and unconstitutional.
The DA will be asking questions in the Gauteng Legislature about these appointments, and we will request that the Health MEC appear before the Legislature’s Health Oversight Committee on this matter.