Thank you hon House Chairperson, the NFP notes and welcome the report tabled here on the Department of Health. What is common knowledge here and seeming to be the norm is that we always tend to spend our money but when it is time to get value for it, that's when we fall flat. Again, this department is guilty of having spent most of the budget allocated to it but it has underperformed.

Irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure continues. I want to remind my friend from the FFPlus that whilst I will acknowledge that, yes, we have serious challenges in the health sector, so does the private sector at the moment with regards to health care despite the fact that people on the ground pay a lot of money for private health care in South Africa.

Health care practitioners in rural areas are badly affected particularly because there seems to be a

shortage of medical specialists and nursing staff. Medical negligence appears to be on the rise. The Health Professions Council of SA, HPCSA, has been poorly performing with regards to its accreditation, and time and again, we find that there are those that are practising as medical practitioners but aren't accredited and have no necessary qualification. There are serious weaknesses with regard to that.

The audit report clearly shows that provinces have a shortage of medicine or stock outs that we referred to and not paying the creditors within 30 days continues. It appears to be a serious problem.

The concern that arises is that if these weaknesses and challenges are not addressed, how are we going to implement the NHI? That's why we believe that more attention must be given to the challenges, but very importantly, 80% of the diseases are caused by what we eat and there is no control measures with regard to the food that is provided on the streets and in different businesses. The NFP supports the report tabled here. [Applause.]