Johannesburg - Aids lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was expected to lay formal charges against Free State Health MEC Benjamin “Benny” Malakoane on Monday following allegations of corruption.
The charges are based on a recent Mail & Guardian exposé that alleged Malakoane abused his position of power in securing an intensive care unit bed at Bethlehem’s Dihlabeng District Hospital for what is believed to be a politically connected acquaintance, referred to as Patient X.
This is despite allegations that the ICU was operating at full capacity and Patient X did not meet the medical criteria for admission to an ICU ward.
In media interviews following the Mail & Guardian story, Malakoane denied any wrongdoing.
Mark Heywood, executive director of public interest law group Section27, said allegations mounted against Malakoane “fit the legal definition of corruption”.
He said: “Mismanaging a health system in a way that causes pain and preventable death should be visited with some legal penalty.”
In a written statement expected to be formally handed over to the SA Police Service on Monday, the TAC highlights “possible criminal activity” by Malakoane and other senior officials in his department.
In the statement, the TAC asks the police to launch an urgent investigation, saying Malakoane and other officials could be found guilty of the offence of “corrupt activities” in terms of section 4 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
The act outlines “offences in respect of corrupt activities relating to public officers’ stating that giving or receiving ‘gratification’ can amount to the abuse of a position of authority”.
“I believe that the officials may have agreed to accept ‘gratification’ for the benefit of Patient X in the form of a bed in the ICU and the financial and other resources that accompany that bed,” TAC general secretary Anele Yawa is quoted as saying in the statement that alleges Malakoane and his colleagues used their positions to enrich themselves.
The TAC statement to the police also questions whether Malakoane’s alleged actions at the district hospital violated accepted medical practice and patients’ constitutional right to health after they were allegedly turned away to accommodate Patient X.
“A politician has no business intervening in those processes to secure a bed for somebody who is a friend, relative or political acquaintance,” said Heywood, adding that independent of the corruption charges, the TAC continued to call for Malakoane’s dismissal.
“We don’t think he’s a fit and proper person to be the health MEC,” Heywood said. “He has presided over a period of further collapse in health systems.”
In June, The Star’s sister papers, the Saturday Star and The Sunday Independent, reported that a financial crisis in the province had led to shortages of more than 200 medicines at the Bloemfontein medicine depot.
Alongside stock-outs of HIV medication and testing kits as well as diabetes treatment, the province was reportedly rationing some services.
About 127 Free State community health workers and activists were arrested following what they maintain were peaceful protests outside the Free State Department of Health’s offices.
They were protesting against poor healthcare delivery and the dismissal of community healthcare workers.
Those arrested were expected to appear in court in Bloemfontein on Monday on charges related to the protests.
Free State Health Department spokesman Mondli Mvambi did not reply to e-mail and telephonic requests for comment.
Health-e News Service