A major shake-up and the expulsion of corrupt officials in the department of Health is looming as Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane prepares to deliver her State of the Province address on Monday.

The Star understands that Mokonyane will give a stern warning to her MECs and their heads of department to move quickly and fire officials responsible for gross mismanagement and looting of public funds across all government departments and other entities. Corrupt health department officials would be the first to be shown the door.

The Star understands that Mokonyane will officially open the Gauteng legislature armed with a strategy to ring changes in the province’s embattled health department.

The premier is not expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle, but the role of one of her MECs is expected to change with immediate effect.

Ntombi Mekgwe will, as from Monday, serve as MEC for health only. Mokonyane is expected to shift the social development portfolio to another MEC.

Dr Nomonde Xundu will retain her post as head of department.

On Thursday, Mokonyane would not confirm that she would split the health and social development portfolios.

But The Star understands that she hopes to rely on Mekgwe and Xundu to help her deal with the rot in the health sector.

The three would conclude their assessment of various CEOs in all hospitals – a process which started last year.

“We are looking at their capabilities. We are satisfied with the majority of our CEOs, and those who do not qualify will be deployed somewhere,” said Mokonyane.

The government plans to ensure all hospital CEOs are in possession of medical qualifications, in line with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s directive.

In her bid to save costs, Mokonyane has vowed to deal with officials who were responsible for fraudulent overtime claims at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.

She confirmed that her cabinet’s intervention in October had managed to save R25 million of overtime money at Baragwanath alone.

Mokonyane said the people who were looting these funds were depriving other people of opportunities to receive proper medical care at provincial primary healthcare centres.

“Our latest reports show that an additional 1 million people are visiting our primary healthcare centres in the province. In the past three years, the figure stood at 23 million.

“In Baragwanath alone, 22 000 babies are born in a year,” Mokonyane said.

She is also expected to announce stricter measures in the appointment of companies responsible for provision of medical supplies to the various medical centres in the province.

“We are going to turn around our medical depot area. It is our weakest link. We are going to appoint people who are going to do the verification of medical supply orders. These officials will also check if we get value for money. Some of the costs of the medical supplies are inflated and others do not reach their destinations,” Mokonyane said.

The premier is also expected to announce a plan to recoup more than R1.6 billion owed by the health departments of North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo as well as by the national government.

A complaint has already been made to President Jacob Zuma. Some of these provinces and the national government have been in arrears since before Mokonyane took office.

The premier said all service providers would be paid by June but, she added, some might be blacklisted because of improper business conduct. - The Star