Premier honours promise to health

MBOMBELA – The provincial government departments finished tabling their budgets to legislature this week. Health MEC Mr Gillion Mashego said they were targeting a complete transformation of service, a total overhaul of the system, radical change in administration and management, and a comprehensive package to re-engineer primary health care.

The budget of health, burdened by accruals which stood at R247 million in October was awarded an additional R37,5 million from the province during the adjustment budget in November.

The premier, Mr David Mabuza also made good on his earlier promise to fund health better this year and Mashego tabled a budget of almost R1 billion more than last year.

“Some of our ageing boilers are in a poor condition, kitchen equipment to a certain extent is non-functional and our laundry machines are also in a bad state,” he said in his speech.

The department plans to focus on increasing life expectancy, decreasing mother and child mortality, combating HIV/Aids, decreasing the burden of disease from TB and strengthening health-system effectiveness.

The Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs, which recently took over environmental affairs, received a small increase of about R100 million.

Of this, R81,2 million is earmarked for environmental-impact studies, awareness programmes, waste disposal and air-quality management.

For legislature, the speaker Ms Thandi Shongwe requested R273,5 million. The Office of the Premier, tabled a budget totalling R205,4 million.

Click here for more on the budget of the departments of social development and culture, sport and recreation. Read more here.