Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon Members of Parliament and distinguished guests, I am very excited that since the Minister took over this portfolio, health as a sector and discipline has been received positively by South Africans. Minister, you are being celebrated by fellow South Africans as the light that has come to shine for many.
The leadership of this department has brought hope to many hopeless South Africans. They have done so with clear minds, knowing that there is a need to better the lives of ordinary South Africans, who depend on the public health sector for a healthy life. This department, under the leadership of the Minister, Deputy Minister and director-general, is being steered in the direction of improving the health of South Africans. The efforts that they have made are there for all of us to see, even the opposition.
This government, under the 100-year-old movement, the ANC, shows that you will not find an old man of 100 years of age who does not know what to do when there is a problem in his house. This movement of the people is aware of what the people on the ground need because it has been on their side long before it became fashionable to be on the side of the people.
The movement has listened to the following: the rural women of Rankelenyane in North West, when they cried about their children who died from pneumonia; the retired mineworker from Driekop in Limpopo, when he complained about asbestosis and that he has not been able to afford treatment at the private hospital; a young teenage girl from Jozini in northern KwaZulu-Natal, when she cried out for help after she had been raped by a group of youngsters; and to an old man at Matengteng in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, when he could not afford to go to the nearest clinic to collect chronic medication because he could not walk. Indeed, it listened to an old woman in Muyexe, Limpopo, when she said that she was unable to collect her TB treatment because the rain had washed away the bridge.
After listening to the cries of those South Africans, the government, under the movement that has a rich history of hearing the cries of ordinary people, decided that it would implement a strategy. The strategy would ensure that health care was accessible, available and indeed affordable to the poor, rural, remote and farming communities.
It is after having heard these painful cries and pleas that this government decided that it would look at the best strategy, which would address the plight of those South Africans and many others, whose cries and pleas come to us through the Presidential Helpline.
The strategy is called the NHI. This is the strategy that will bring equality and equity to access to health care services for all South Africans, irrespective of where they live. This will ensure that a granny from Manthe in North West gets the same health care as the person in Klerksdorp; that a school child from Griekwastad in the Northern Cape and a pregnant mother in Matatiele, in the Eastern Cape get the same service as the person living in Port Elizabeth, and a young man from the Cape Flats gets the same care and treatment as the person in Chapman's Peak. This strategy will ensure that all South Africans get the same quality service because they are all equal citizens of this beautiful motherland of ours.
In this regard, I would like to congratulate the leadership of the department for the giant, bold step it has taken to ensure that the country moves forward and that access to quality health care is not the privilege of a few, but a right for all South Africans. I am convinced that the strategy will be able to address the key problems that the health department has been experiencing. I am excited because the department has identified the problems of the health sector, some of which have tarnished the image of this glorious profession.
Having said those things, I would need to advise the department that they need to ensure that they implement the strategy in health service systematically so that it continues to be sustainable after all these efforts have been made. Our people are waiting patiently for the day when they can confidently go to a facility and come back feeling better, both mentally and physically.
I know that the department has good intentions. However, I want to caution that unless these plans are systematically implemented, we are bound to be counted amongst the generations that had good intentions but meant nothing to the ordinary citizens. These ordinary citizens are interested in service delivery, not talking about the problem.
I will say to the Minister: "Beware of the prophets of doom." If we implement the NHI but still fail to reduce maternal mortality, we will have failed. If we implement the NHI but continue to have children and infants dying from preventable and curable causes of ill health, we will have done nothing worth celebrating. If we continue to have no medication in our facilities, we will still have failed the people we are representing.
My learned member over there will have to agree with me as far as the NHI is concerned. [Interjections.] I am so delighted that you agree with me. [Laughter.]
The implementation of the NHI should be followed by an improvement in the health outcomes, because that is what people want to hear. In order for us to achieve these things, we need clarity of mind and thought. We need to focus on the goal and keep our eyes on the ball, irrespective of any negative talk. We should spare no time or effort to deliver on the goals we have set for ourselves. It is also my belief that, unless the department strengthens primary health care and the district health system, all the wonderful dreams that it has will fail.
I really want to say that if you look at the plans that the hon Kopane has talked about, they are plans that the department already has - it is just that they speak a different language. It has become common practice for the DA to come here and tell us of their dreams of what their plans would be when they take over. Can they please support the plans that are here? How can they stand here and shoot down a plan that is going to take South Africa to another level?