JUSTICE MALALA | ‘People want to sleep on the floor’ comment shows how ANC has lost its soul

In the Sunday Times yesterday [February 8], Gauteng health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko was asked about overcrowding at hospitals. This is an issue that has been highlighted numerous times in various publications and media platforms over many years. It’s not a made-up story.

It’s a fact that many of us know from bitter experience because we have seen friends and relatives wait for a day or more for a bed at Gauteng hospitals. Her response to the question was thoughtless, cynical, heartless and heartbreaking. “Did you know that when you are sick, you want to [lie] down?

“[Especially] when you are pregnant and want to deliver and are in pain, [you] go down and sleep on the floor,” she said. “The patients will say, ‘Leave me — I want to sleep on the floor.’ “To you, it’s [just] people who are sleeping on the floor, because you come and steal that with your camera.” She has now apparently barred journalists from taking pictures in Gauteng hospitals. This is also the person who last week hailed the return of the suspended former head of her department to work despite his having been flagged by the Special Investigating Unit.

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He was seen as a high-risk individual who has received R1.6m in questionable ATM cash deposits suspected to be linked to the looting of Tembisa Hospital. It is tempting to demand that the premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, fire Nkomo-Ralehoko immediately.

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