Activists have criticised EC premier Oscar Mabuyane’s decision to ‘second’ the head of health to a special unit in his office.
Dr. Rolene Wagner, Head of Health in the Eastern Cape, who was seconded to the Office of the Premier.
Eastern Cape premier claims redeployments are to build a ‘crack team’, but DA says it’s a ‘smokescreen’On 19 September, the deputy director of human resources and corporate affairs in the provincial Department of Health, in ainformed health workers, district managers and other senior officials in the department that Wagner “has been granted leave of absence from 18 to 30 September 2023”. The CFO, Msulwa Daca, would act as HoD during this period.
In defence of Wagner, the health activists and professionals stated in the letter that the “turnaround already evident under Wagner’s leadership is remarkable and deserves and requires sustained support and commitment from all stakeholders. “Additionally, she oversaw the roll-out of a digital health record system to 26 hospitals and three Emergency Medical Service units, which saves the department around R45-million annually. She also eliminated unauthorised expenditure of the budget vote and reduced irregular expenditure from around R200-million in 2020/21 to under R6.7-million by the end of the 2022/23 financial year.”
“In the Eastern Cape, I don’t know how many HoDs have been there and it seems that there is no understanding of how complex it is to lead such a large organisation [a provincial department of health].” “However, there is no valid reason for doing so and the creation of the Provincial Crack Team seems nonsensical. You do not remove a key leader from a major department that is involved in billions of rands of procurement. To me, it sounds like they removed the accounting officer and replaced them with an acting person to manipulate contracts, tenders, procurements and appointments,” he said.
HoDs often serve on various committees, including committees established by provincial Cabinets, Engelbrecht said. In such cases, however, the HoD would remain responsible for their department as accounting officer. Wagner and the three other HoDs, in this case, have been relieved of their duties as HoDs.
Yawa said it was confusing that people claim to be serving the people, but when structures representing the people reach out to them, they are nowhere to be found.“We are aware of the intervention of Wagner in turning around the situation in the province with regard to reducing funds lost to medico-legal settlements. But we are not sure about other interventions of the HoD, which makes it difficult for us as TAC to say it was wrong or right for the premier to remove her.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
| Four dead, 4 injured in CIT heists in KZN and Eastern CapeIt's been a deadly start to the week for security companies, with two guards killed in cash-in-transit (CIT) heists in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
Read more »
Road tripping the Eastern Cape Karoo routes of discoveryThis little river town in the Eastern Cape Karoo is a tough nut, but it also has a soft heart, a sweet tooth and a deep affection for sport, festivals and parades.
Read more »
Axed Crime Intelligence officer arrested in Eastern Cape for string of offencesAxed Crime Intelligence officer arrested in Eastern Cape for string of offences
Read more »
DevOps Engineer/Senior Developer - Western Cape Cape Town - IT-OnlineIT Industry News. Daily.
Read more »
Oracle DBA - Western Cape Cape Town CBD - IT-OnlineIT Industry News. Daily.
Read more »
JJPS Change Agent/LCM Project Manager - Western Cape Cape Town - IT-OnlineIT Industry News. Daily.
Read more »