Pretoria - A Gauteng medical waste company has had to shut its doors due to non-payment by the provincial Department of Health. It has now resorted to going to the courts for compensation.
Seane Medical Waste, a 100% BBE company, collapsed in 2019 after many years of servicing the department while it defaulted on payment.
The company, owned by Brian Seane, was one of three contracted by the department to collect waste from Gauteng health facilities. The others are Buhle Waste Management and Compass Medical Waste.
Last week, the Pretoria News reported that waste was piling up at the province’s health facilities, after Buhle Waste withheld its services because the company was owed millions for services spanning two years.
Seane Medical sued the department for R74 million but got paid R37m instead and now has a default judgment for the balance.
Speaking to the Pretoria News yesterday, Seane said it was a fact that he has had to shut his doors because of non-payment for 36 months.
“We have a default judgment against the department and can attach anything that belongs to it. It could be a hospital or cars, anything we deem fit.
“I’m in talks with the MEC (Nomathemba Mokgethi) who seems keen to assist in this matter because our contract has not expired yet. We will decide how to move forward once we have … talks next week.”
The ailing department’s financial woes seem to be piling up, with allegations of food shortages at some hospitals and the termination of the jobs of about 800 nurses roped in to assist when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out two years ago.
Last week during the Gauteng legislature’s financial committee meeting it was revealed that the department owed R3.1 billion to 42 519 service providers who had not been paid within the required 30 days.
Mokgethi’s spokesperson Kwara Kekana said: “The department is currently addressing historic backlogs in the form of accruals, some related to transactions as far back as 2013 which have now accumulated to about R5.8bn and were carried over into 2021/22 financial year.”
Pretoria News