Chairperson, hon Minister, we are contributing in this debate as constructively as possible in the hope of advancing the accountability that you seek in the Health department that you have inherited in an abysmal state.
While the IFP welcomes the increased budget for hospital revitalisation and HIV treatment, we feel that our country's problems are not due to the amount of money which is in the budget as much as to how the money is misused or not used at all. You said yourself that the finances are so complex that you are having trouble understanding them. We have argued that for many years. Therefore, what steps will you to take to change the structure - that is my first question?
I will point out that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, for example, has overspent by R1,8 billion. To all intents and purposes, this has placed a moratorium on new staff appointments. Yet, conditional grants in the hospital have not been spent. As a result, even pivotal hospitals like Addington are hopelessly overstretched. It is therefore in a similar state to rural hospitals in our country, whose appalling state was outlined in the national Save the Children committee. On the basis of this report, the IFP ... [Interjections.]