{"id":93797,"date":"2024-12-06T10:25:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T08:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=93797"},"modified":"2024-12-06T10:25:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T08:25:47","slug":"gauteng-health-spends-r16-7-million-on-suspended-officials-das-jack-bloom-weighs-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/gauteng-health-spends-r16-7-million-on-suspended-officials-das-jack-bloom-weighs-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauteng Health spends R16.7 million on suspended officials: DA’s Jack Bloom weighs in"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Azra Hoosen | ah@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n6 December 2024 | 10:00 CAT
\n2 min read<\/p>\n

The Gauteng Health Department has spent R16.7 million on salaries for 10 suspended officials, some for over two-and-a-half years. The Democratic Alliance (DA) criticises the prolonged disciplinary processes and blames the inefficiency on the lack of a permanent Chief Director of Human Resources for six years.<\/p>\n

Jack Bloom, <\/em>DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, told Radio Islam that suspending employees with full pay during investigations is standard practice, but disciplinary inquiries should ideally be concluded within 2-3 months in an efficient department. \u201c<\/em>In a normal efficient department that\u2019s what would happen but in the Gauteng health department it doesn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Key cases include three officials suspended for 992 days each over alleged financial misconduct involving R500 million spent on the Anglo Ashanti Hospital. Among them, Dr. Sifiso Maseko received R4.4 million while under suspension.<\/p>\n

Jack Bloom highlighted an extreme case where a Gauteng Health Department staff member was suspended with full pay for over four years\u2014likely a record. But he noted that she eventually left the department, hence why she is not included in the current case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the present case we have no fewer than 3 officials for more than 2 and a half years, one of them during that period got more than R4.5 Million, it is nice money, if you can get it for doing nothing,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

Bloom expressed no surprise at the prolonged suspensions, citing the Gauteng Health Department\u2019s consistent failures on multiple levels. \u201cIt is a symptom of absolute inefficiency in that department,\u201d he exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Other suspensions involve procurement irregularities, sexual harassment, and misconduct. Outcomes include four dismissals, ongoing SIU investigations, and pending verdicts for other cases.<\/p>\n

Bloom believes corruption cases are intentionally prolonged as a means of protecting the individuals involved. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to make a finding, because then they can implicate other people. That has been the experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the department claims to be waiting for the SIU to conclude its investigations, Bloom argues they could proceed with their own disciplinary actions. He highlights the absence of a permanent Chief Director in Human Resources for over six years as a significant issue, suggesting it is deliberate to allow for mismanagement and misconduct to go unchecked, relying instead on acting officials who lack the authority or stability to enforce accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real oversight should be by the MEC for Health. I don\u2019t know how she can tolerate a situation where you shoveling out huge amounts of money of people accused of serious matters who are sitting at home, twiddling their thumbs. The accountability needs to be political,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bloom asserts that the current MEC for Health and the Head of Department are unfit for their roles and should be replaced, citing their inability to address the department’s systemic failures effectively. \u201cIt is rotten from top to bottom as a department. This is not the only misdemeanor of the Gauteng health department but it clearly shows they cannot conduct speedy disciplinary hearings and end up wasting huge amounts of money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

LISTEN <\/strong>to the full interview with Ml Junaid Kharsany and Jack Bloom, <\/em>DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Azra Hoosen | ah@radioislam.co.za 6 December 2024 | 10:00 CAT 2 min read The Gauteng Health Department has spent R16.7 million on salaries for 10 suspended officials, some for over two-and-a-half years. The Democratic Alliance (DA) criticises the prolonged disciplinary processes and blames the inefficiency on the lack of a permanent Chief Director of Human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":93798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-12-03-at-14.45.00.jpeg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-ooR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 11:46:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}