Durban - Outreach health programmes could be suspended in the King Cetshwayo District, on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, if the rampant hijacking of department vehicles continued, Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo has warned.
This follows the recent hijacking of two departmental Toyota Hilux double cab 4X4s in the area within as many hours.
Since April, 18 department vehicles have been hijacked in this area alone, costing the cash-strapped department millions of rands.
In an interview with the Daily News at the weekend, Dhlomo said the department would not continue risking its employees’ lives if people in the uThungulu area were unwilling to help curb the hijackings.
“These thugs hijacked the first vehicle at gunpoint. They changed its registration plates and within two hours used it to hijack the second vehicle.
“This criminal act against the department will have serious adverse effects on the delivery of outreach programmes in the King Cetshwayo District,” Dhlomo said.
He said the first vehicle was on TB tracing and injection missions in the Ntuthunga area, while the second was en route to Eshowe and Nkandla hospitals to deliver male circumcision kits.
He said both vehicles had been recovered, one at a house in the Dlangubo area, where the home owner led the Empangeni police to the second vehicle.
“I am concerned that our health professionals are really getting apprehensive about doing outreach programmes. If they decide to stop going to that area, our people are going to start dying,” Dhlomo said.
“We have studied our terrain in KwaZulu-Natal and noted that there are areas that are not easily accessible, hence the decision to buy 4X4s.
“We are trying to make it easy for our people who cannot get to clinics easily.”
The TB tracker teams helped in getting people who had defaulted on their treatment, and they thus helped stop the spread of the infectious disease, he said.
Dhlomo called the hijackings, “acts of sabotage”.
The vehicles each cost the department more than R250 000. Once delivered, new vehicles are each fitted with medical equipment worth about R800 000.
“We understand that these vehicles are stolen to be taken across the border to Mozambique and we are monitoring the situation,” he said.
uThungulu Mayor Ntombenhle Mkhulisi said it was disturbing that health vehicles were targets.
“We need to meet with all the stakeholders, including the police and Amakhosi, and find a lasting solution before our people are wiped out by diseases.
“This has to stop,” Mkhulisi said.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane confirmed the recovery of one of the vehicles, but did not have much detail on the incidents.
In August, the provincial Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison announced a R90 million plan to place concrete blocks along the length of the province’s 80km border with Mozambique in a move to stem the vehicle theft.
At the time, it said syndicates were targeting luxury and 4x4 vehicles in KZN, that were being stolen and driven across the porous border.
Department spokesperson Sipho Khumalo said the security issue at the border was handled by the provincial government.
Ndabezinhle Sibiya, spokesperson for KZN Premier Willies Mchunu, said the provincial government had allocated R50 million for the cross-border crime-fighting initiative along the KZN/Mozambique border after a resolution of the provincial executive council lekgotla held in September.
The funds would be used in 2016/17 and 2017/8 financial year.