GP treasury denies excluding Charlotte Maxeke hospital renovations from the budget

There are questions about what is happening to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, which has still not been repaired after the devastating fire of April last year.

The renovations to the hospital were not included in the Gauteng provincial budget, which was delivered on Wednesday. DA provincial spokesperson on health Jack Bloom claimed the Gauteng health department had stated it did not mention the hospital in their roll-out plan for hospital renovations because Charlotte Maxeke (CMJH) would be transferred to the national health department.

“If they are not competent and honest enough to handle CMJH, then what guarantee do we have that they will not make a similar mess of other hospitals,” he said.

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However, Gauteng provincial Treasury spokesperson John Sukazi said the hospital was part of the budget and would be included in the “normal” infrastructure document.

“Just because it was not included in the budget speech does not mean it is not part of the official budget document,” he said.

“The budget speech cannot detail everything and one can only include so much.”

Gauteng MEC for finance and e-government Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko yesterday revealed during the Gauteng budget speech that the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) had allocated R36.8 billion for the provincial government infrastructure programme.

The programme would include the refurbishment of hospitals such as Dr Yusuf Dadoo in Edenvale, Leratong Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.

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“A total of R3.4 billion has been made available to Gauteng department of health over the 2022 MTEF, consisting of R1.6 billion in 2022-23 and R738.2 million in 2023-24,” she said Bloom said despite this funding, all Gauteng hospitals were crumbling and not compliant with the occupational health and safety legislation.

He said the problem was there had been many years of neglect. “My worry is the money is not spent effectively and there are corrupt contracts.

There are no assurances that this money will be spent properly,” he said Meanwhile, the Gauteng department of community safety would receive R233 million in order to implement the 24-hour model of traffic policing in the province.

A further R125 million had also been made to assist the department with the cost of fleet services.

– lungas@citizen.co.za