Community health workers provide an essential service and should be treated with dignity and respect, says Bonginkosi Dhlamini.
Health care is important in various ways as it serves the general well-being of people. However, in Gauteng, as seen in recent times, this does not seem to be the case.
Over the past six months, we have observed Gauteng community health workers (CHW) protesting and taking their plight to the provincial Department of Health only for their concerns to go unheeded.
While the standstill continues, communities have been affected as ordinary people can’t receive the essential services provided by these community health aides.
It is a known fact that developing countries like South Africa experience critical shortages of highly educated health professionals, mainly because medical and nursing schools are unable to train enough workers to deal with the increasing demand for health-care services or there are issues around the curricula or development of these schools themselves, particularly when it comes to nursing.
Hence, CHWs are the foot soldiers who provide a link between clinics and the communities they serve. They deliver home-based care, direct treatment observation, facilitation of support groups and adherence clubs and offer HIV testing and counselling among other things. Yet, their importance continues to be overlooked.
The delegation of administration to SmartPurse by the Gauteng Department of Health in May to be the monitoring and payroll agency to CHWs proved a blow to these hard-working men and women who only seek acknowledgement for their hard work.
Despite the R87 million worth of tenders awarded to SmartPurse, the agency proved to be incompetent in improving the working conditions of CHWs and paying them their meagre stipend of R2 500 (which is in any case insufficient to meet their needs).
To many of us who care about where our tax goes, it is troubling that this agency is failing to live up to its name.
What boggles the mind is that, in their protest, CHWs are asking for basic requirements to be met. This includes recognition as the employees of the Department of Health, a standardised liveable wage with benefits and the finalisation of the CHW policy that the department has been drafting for years but at a snail’s pace. This policy is aimed at addressing the issues of CHWs and providing a scope of practice for their work.
These are not unreasonable demands. If it has R87m to award to a company to monitor the CHWs, the department can meet these demands.
Surely it should rather invest in the livelihoods of the 9 182 people who actually get the work done under severe conditions.
An average CHW is expected to reach 250 households a month. While the department is playing push-and-pull with the workers, about 2 million people who are not receiving primary health care battle even more.
This is a violation of the right to access health care and it undermines the fact that health care is not a privilege, but a basic human right - a right enshrined in the constitution.
This is the time to remind our leaders that along with God, or whatever voice they listen to, we are watching their performance, their deeds and schemes.
We want them to know that the wealth of a country is measured by the health and well-being of its citizens.
Therefore, the hopes and desires of these leaders must reflect our own for this nation to be great.
* Bonginkosi Dhlamini is the IFP Gauteng chairperson.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
The Star