Pietermaritzburg – KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo hit rock bottom on the Democratic Alliance’s annual score card rating the performance of the province’s MECs.
The report card, released on Wednesday and titled “The more things change – the more they stay the same”, gave Dhlomo a score of 1/10.
Tabling the annual scorecard in the DA’s newly elected caucus leader Francois Rodgers said they were convinced that Dhlomo was not wielding any power in his department, and this was compromising the province’s public healthcare system.
He added that while the leadership changes in the form of a cabinet reshuffle had brought new opportunities to engage with the African National Congress on key issues, they had affected the legislature programme as ANC campaigning took precedence during the prolonged build-up to the election this year.
The DA’s health spokesman Dr Imraan Keeka said there was very little to celebrate about Dhlomo’s performance.
“The MEC has yet again presided over not just over-expenditure but also irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounting to billions. Meanwhile, his department’s report to the provincial Scopa (Standing Committee on Public Accounts) is a document replete with excuses and does not show any indication that there will be improvement,” said Keeka.
According to the DA, the rating of the KZN health department as the second worst offending government department or entity nationally in terms of irregular expenditure in the latest report by the Auditor General was a further illustration of “an unhealthy” state of affairs in the department.
Dhlomo’s poor performance was one of many according to the DA, with only Finance MEC Belinda Scott and Public Works MEC Ravi Pillay scoring above six points.
The biggest problem facing Scott according to the DA report card was the challenge of “reigning in some high flying MEC’s and certain departments which seem unable or unwilling to operate within the prescribed legal framework or within the confines of their allocated budget”.
The ANC provincial chairman Sihle Zikalala, who is the province’s Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC, also came under fire. With a score of 3/10, the report described Zikalala “as something of a mirage – seldom seen in portfolio committee meetings yet very vocal in cementing his leadership of the ANC in KZN”.
The DA conceded that it was in some cases too early to tell how effective some of the MEC’s would be, as they had only taken over their respective portfolios some four months back following a cabinet reshuffle.
However, it did not stop the department singling out the education as being seriously problematic.
DA Chief Whip Mark Steele told the media on Wednesday that the scoreboard was not a publicity stunt but was a true barometer in which government could be rated.
He also promised that the party would continue to ask tough question to the ANC led administration as other parties had failed to hold the executive to account.
“The DA as KZN’s official opposition has continued to work hard to ensure that the provincial executive (MEC’s) and senior departmental officials are held to account. This has been done through portfolio committees, speeches and debates and through what is essentially the most important tool when it comes to accountability from the executive - parliamentary question,” said Steele.
He cited statistics which indicated that between January and October 2016, the DA’s 10 member caucus submitted some 140 parliamentary questions to MECs and the Premier regarding particular budget items or problem areas of service delivery within the competence of a department.
“No other party, in other words, not one of the other members of the provincial legislature submitted a single question to MEC’s or the Premier. Clearly other opposition parties have abdicated this responsibility,” said Steele.
He expressed optimism that through such action the DA would do better in the next national and provincial elections as the electorate would have seen that they were taking their role as the opposition seriously.
African News Agency