EFF-led government will revive the ‘collapsed health-care services’

EFF Leader, Julius Malema. Photographer Ayanda Ndamane /Independent Newspapers

EFF Leader, Julius Malema. Photographer Ayanda Ndamane /Independent Newspapers

Published Mar 26, 2024

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EFF leader Julius Malema said his party would fix the collapsed health care system the ruling party had destroyed.

Malema said he wasn’t even thinking of attending to public hospitals as they were too dysfunctional, and one would be committing suicide if they would go there.

In order for his party to fix and correct all the wrongs done by the current administration, EFF leader said South Africans needed to vote his party in power to accomplish all the ANC failed to do in 30 years.

“Under the leadership of the EFF, which we would be having decision making powers, we are going to be forcing members of the executives and parliamentarians to use public hospitals as those would be functional.

“The schools will also be functional, and as part of our commitment to education it must be free, it must be of good quality, it must be decolonised, and we want mathematics to be compulsory in schools because we want our children to learn the necessary skills.

“Verwoerd said what would a black child do with mathematics, therefore denied us the opportunity,” Malema said.

The EFF leader, however, acknowledged that there were some public schools and hospitals that were functional, but they were only a handful of them.

“It is not middle class that makes public schools functional, it is the deliberate decision by government to ensure that public education must be functional.”

During his manifesto launch in Durban, last month, Malema said his government would build 24-hour integrated post-sexual trauma centres in all district hospitals for urgent medical, forensic, psychological, and social assistance.

He said the centres would be directly linked to policing and directive directorates.

Among other plans to improve health quality, the Red Beret leader said his government would ensure that no one was left behind and all people would get health benefits.

Malema further promised that his government would develop a regulatory environment for digital health governance to ensure equality, non-discrimination, participation, transparency, and accountability in design, artificial intelligence adoption in health, and overall digital tools implementation.

“The EFF government will police, investigate, and prosecute all illegal advertisements of medical procedures or organ sales, illegal health facilities, and illegal providers of health care,” he said at the time.

The EFF plans to have specialist hospitals that will operate 24 hours, with 450 consisting of internal medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics, gynaecology, and general surgeons, trauma teams, mental health and drug detox and rehabilitation centres, LGBTIQA-specific health care, and palliative health services.