Jack Bloom – The service delivery bulldog

Politics lubricates Jack Bloom’s sense of social justice and the Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson on provincial health in Gauteng has dedicated his life to public service.

He believes that by doing what he’s doing he can really make a difference. And his track record speaks for itself. He has made big waves over the years.

Public health officials in Gauteng would rather shape up than be clobbered by the now notorious Bloom machine.

When Bloom is not exposing hospitals for purchasing luxury leather furniture and skinny jeans instead of spending on healing the sick and destitute, he drives other critically important issues, sometimes foreshadowing disaster as he did in the Life Esidimeni tragedy.

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Bloom warned disaster was pending months before it hit. And then he did not let go – and he will not let go until real answers and accountability are forthcoming.

At one stage, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital put up a photo of his face in its security office with the instruction not to allow him access to the property to conduct one of his relentless oversight visits.

He said: “I was brought up in a very political and socially conscious household. Since a young age I was thinking about politics, and I concluded why not me?” And just like that, Bloom’s political career was ready to take off, along with a hiccup or two along the way.

He contested and lost his first municipal elections in 1988, getting only 28 votes. In 1991, he was elected as ward councillor for Highlands North.

He said canvassing was face-to-face, by phone and it was a relentless pursuit that started months before the election. This was before social media and when people still opened their front doors to strangers.

The Democratic Party (DP), as it was then known, was a fledgling product of an amalgamation between the PFP, the New Republican Party and the Independent Party.

When the 1994 elections arrived, the National Party became the official opposition in the Government of National Unity under the ANC’s Nelson Mandela.

Bloom said: “If you want to see real political leadership, that was Tony Leon in the ’90s. It was never preordained that the DP could become the official opposition, but he managed it, and provided a viable political alterative for people. It was one of the great political reversals in the history of our country.”

This was when, as a member of the official opposition in the Gauteng provincial legislature, Bloom assumed the health portfolio. He knew nothing about it at the time, but he spent months with experts studying every aspect of his portfolio and made a go of it.

Five years later, under the leadership of Leon, the DP became official opposition and by the following year consumed the previous regime to became the Democratic Alliance. It was a big culture shock when one of the DP’s largest political adversaries joined the fray.

It took the party some time to come to grips with the influx of the former custodians of apartheid.

But Bloom said: “Since then, many have migrated into the ANC, and the liberals stayed and helped us build the DA into what it is today.” He criticised former National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk for accepting a Cabinet position as minister of tourism and environment whereafter he enjoyed various diplomatic sorties.

Van Schalkwyk is presently SA’s ambassador to Australia. Bloom said: “Leon never accepted a Cabinet position despite several offers. He was dead set against selling out.”

Only after stepping down as party leader did Leon become SA’s ambassador to Argentina for a single term. Bloom has been shadow MEC for health for close on 22 years, he has authored four books and has exposed corruption and poor service delivery more than almost any other politician.

His voice has made a significant difference. He said: “There is not a day that goes past that I am not contacted by whistle-blowers or concerned citizens about something. And I always follow up.”

In the more than two decades he has seen billions of rands of corruption.

He said: “People are stealing left, right and centre. If the funds were managed properly, there’s so much good that could be done with it to deliver a pretty decent service to South Africans.”

Bloom does not want to move onto parliament.

“I am probably too much of an individualist to have a whip looking over my shoulder and telling me what press statements I can and cannot issue,” he said.

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