Hon Chairperson ...
... ntate Motsoaledi, le ha o leka lefapheng la hao, re sitwa ho ka dumellana le wena ka ditekanyetso tsena tseo o di entseng tsa lefapha hobane nka hlalosa hore ... [... Hon Motsoaledi, even though you are trying your best in your department, we are unable to support the Budget Vote for this department because I can explain that ...]
... the EFF objects to the Health Budget Vote due to government's failure to address the causal factors in the explosion of diseases prevalent in our country, which is escalating at an alarming rate.
We call for government to build a state-owned pharmaceutical company to produce medicines and distribute them to hospitals and clinics to reduce the costs of buying Western medicines and drugs. We also urge the government to stop buying medicines and drugs from foreign multinational pharmaceutical companies at inflated prices and costs.
The government is paying lip service to the National Health Insurance and we know that it is disingenuous about its commitment to implement the NHI by 2017 or any other time later than that.
We therefore call for the building of health facilities in every village, be it a hospital or clinic, within the next five years. Fail to do so and the South African people will judge you harshly.
We are calling on the government to re-employ with immediate effect all the community health workers who have been arrested and abused in the Free State and all other provinces. The government must realise that the public health care system is mostly underfunded, dysfunctional, with incidents of corruption, human resource shortages in all hospitals and clinics, long waiting times; and shortages of medicines, health care equipment and ambulances are a common occurrence.