Tebogo Msimanga |
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says Gauteng residents are still paying for the salary of nine officials from Gauteng’s Department of Infrastructure Development and Health, seven months after their suspension. The officials were suspended because of the irrational decision to spend more than half a billion rand on refurbishing the Anglo Gold Ashanti hospital.
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Infrastructure Development and Property Management Alan Fuchs said many months down the line there has been no movement in the case against these officials who are currently at home.
“This is just another example of the administrative ineptitude of the government and calls into question whether a case exists at all”.
Fuchs said the fact that this hospital was not utilised in the fight against Covid and today stands abandoned, adds weight to the argument that those responsible for this decision must be investigated for the waste of such a large sum of money. “The decision to refurbish this hospital was taken by the Covid Command Council, with Premier David Makhura and former MEC Bandile Masuku as its most senior political participants. Premier Makhura remains in office, while Masuku was removed as the MEC for Health”.
The opposition party added that it will continue to fight for this investigation to go ahead as the incompetence and wastage we see in this province must come to an end. “It is high time that the current administration is replaced with a DA government that will spend our taxes openly and transparently”.
