JOHANNESBURG - The Democratic Alliance (DA), in an attempt to conduct an oversight inspection at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Diepkloof, was barred from entering the hospital on Wednesday.
The DA said it had consistently pointed out Home Affairs' failure to control illegal immigration and that this year the Gauteng taxpayer was in part footing the bill of healthcare for illegal immigrants, with one third of the province’s budget, R50 billon, allocated to healthcare.
"We know that this particular hospital is getting close to R3 billion of that budget and you would know that this hospital also has quite a huge inflow of foreign nationals. What we wanted to find out here today was what is the actual impact,"the DA's Gauteng Premier Candidate, Solly Msimanga, said.
Msimanga said that it didn't help that the ANC talked about accountability and the steps that would be put in place to address this issue with its officials while on the ground it was not giving them direction.
"We are being barred from speaking to stakeholders and that very much a concern of ours and we want to raise it," Msimanga said.
DA Shadow Health MEC for Gauteng, Jack Bloom said: "What are they hiding? I think they should open up to us and be honest with us."
Bloom said the DA wanted to know if money wouldl be retrieved from embassies for treating foreign national patients.
"Now they are barring us from entering the hospital. We come here and we are told that we are not able to meet with the CEO," Msimanga said.
African News Agency (ANA)
