What more proof do you need that our government is sick?

If it weren’t such a national tragedy, the day-to-day activities of the governing ANC would seem ludicrously funny.

Take, for example, the latest from the department of health, the body which is about to capture – so it seems – all of our medical aid contributions and throw them into one enormous, lootable, pot.

Workers at its headquarters building in Pretoria are now working just three hours a day … because the building is a health hazard. Not only is the Civitas building a threat to those who work there, the situation has been that way for more than a year and nothing has been done.

The department of health has forced employees to only work three hours a day because ironically, their headquarters are still a health hazard.

The building also houses health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, who said a few weeks ago that the proposed National Health Insurance would be as efficiently run as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and the Road Accident Fund … government bodies that have been characterised by mismanagement, incompetence and theft.

Civitas seems to be deteriorating, with parts of the ceiling collapsing and sections of the building cordoned off. At the entrance of the state of the art 29-floor building, most of the biometric glass security doors were out of order.

Buckets were strategically placed in various parts of the building, including the department’s library, due to leaking ceilings following the recent rains, which have left carpets and documents damaged. No surprise that ministerial spokesperson Popo Maja had nothing to say.

Then there are reports that Mkhize appointed his niece as chief of staff in the department, despite her being implicated in questionable conduct when she worked for the Public Investment Corporation. It doesn’t require a medical specialist to make this diagnosis: our government is sick.

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