Hon Speaker, at the end of this month the Pongola Hospital situated in northern KwaZulu-Natal will close down. This will be because the financial subsidy they have been receiving from the government has been cut off. This will result not only in 43 hospital staff members losing their jobs, but also condemning many patients to death. The nearest hospital is 36 kilometres away and it is at full capacity. Where are the patients who are in the ICU supposed to go?
The hospital needs R3,8 million in order to continue its operations; R3,8 million to provide much needed health services to a community that desperately needs these basic services. Out of the billions that will be received, one wonders how R3,8 million cannot be allocated to a hospital that desperately needs it.
Billions have been spent on consultants, R206 million was spent on Nkandla and even R40 million to R140 million on a website by the Free State provincial government, yet government does not seem fazed at these amounts spent unnecessarily. No one can seem to find R3,8 million for a hospital to function, providing a more critical service than the stated facts combined.
Or is it all political? Are the people of Pongola being punished? Thank you. [Interjections.] [Time expired.]