South Africa’s former Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba has described the country’s health system as “dysfunctional” and “a mess”.
The state of South Africa’s health delivery system directly affects Zimbabweans as millions are reportedly residing in South Africa while others cross the border daily, some on foot, to seek medical care in the neighbouring country.
Makgoba was the country’s inaugural ombuds and served his final day in office on Wednesday, 31 May.
He was quoted by EWN as saying that during his seven-year term, Makgoba’s office investigated over 10 000 complaints.
Makgoba made reference to the Life Esidimeni incident where 144 patients died saying it left him particularly shocked. He said:
What I found very strange about that was when the MEC and her senior people said it was normal for people to die, after all that, I thought that was careless and I couldn’t believe that.
… I don’t think [the health system could be fixed] with this government, and I am not advocating regime change but I think this government has been so incompetent that we should do something about it as the electorate.
According to online sources, the Life Esidimeni tragedy occurred as a result of the rushed execution of the Gauteng Mental Health Marathon Project, when the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) terminated its contract with Life Esidimeni, a facility that provided “highly-specialised chronic psychiatric care” to mentally ill patients.
The tragedy involved the deaths of 144 people at psychiatric facilities in the Gauteng province of South Africa from causes including starvation and neglect.
The tragedy takes its name from Life Esidimeni, a subsidiary of Life Healthcare, the private healthcare provider from which some 1 500 state patients were moved to other facilities.
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