Hon Deputy Speaker, Mr President, HIV/Aids is still of pandemic proportions in South Africa.
In 2009 the DA welcomed the apparent u-turn by our government on HIV/Aids, on the occasion of World Aids Day. The government, we thought, had finally acknowledged the reality of Aids and recognised that this was indeed a crisis that was destroying lives and which had consequences for every South African.
The age of denialism, which had lasted for a decade, was over, we thought. Examples from across Africa showed that when there was political leadership leading the charge against HIV/Aids, it did have a positive effect in reducing new infections.
However, Mr President, you certainly do not practise what you expect the rest of us to do. You do not consider yourself bound by the norms of safe sex that you spoke of in December last year on World Aids Day, some 10 weeks ago. To remind you, I would like to quote a few lines. You said:
Each individual must take responsibility for protection against HIV ... We can eliminate the scourge of HIV if all South Africans take responsibility for their actions.
The DA believes in personal responsibility, as it will only be through the changing of the sexual habits of each individual that we will be able to combat this scourge.
Mr President, the fact is that your actions have set us back at least a decade in the fight against HIV/Aids. The response of millions and millions of young, impressionable people will be: "If the President can do it, so can I."
This attitude undermines the entire message of the government's HIV/Aids programme and all the good work the Minister of Health spoke about here today when he said that his department was working night and day to be prepared to achieve the targets you set for them 10 weeks ago. You have undermined all that hard work.
You, Mr President, set the tone for the rest of the nation. You need to answer the question: Do you believe in what you said 10 weeks ago? The ANC tolerated a president in denial for a decade. We cannot tolerate another.
Deputy Speaker, another grave concern for the DA is the ever-increasing overspending by the provinces. Gauteng is R1,8 billion overdrawn and cannot pay contractors. KwaZulu-Natal is at least R2,3 billion overdrawn and technically cannot pay salaries in February; and the Eastern Cape is overdrawn to the tune of at least R1,6 billion.
The main reasons for this financial crisis are the systemic underfunding of the nurses' and doctors' occupation-specific dispensation by national government; the R7 billion overspent by provinces in 2008-09; deferred expenses from that year to the current year; and underbudgeting for the Aids programme of around R1 billion.
In the last financial year, the ANC-led Free State province, unconstitutionally and unilaterally, cut health services and stopped the dispensing of life-saving antiretroviral medication for a month due to this financial crisis. An additional 30 people a day died during that period. Where is the accountability, Mr President?
Deputy Speaker, the management of hospitals needs urgent attention. Sixty- two per cent of hospital CEOs do not have a management degree or diploma. Two and a half years after Frere Hospital's horrific baby deaths the same unqualified hospital manager, who was previously an ANC councillor, remains in charge. Where is the accountability, Mr President?
Without addressing these fundamental problems, this government is about to embark on the new system of the national health insurance, which is so expensive that a report published in today's papers suggests it will cost 60% of our total national budget.
What we need to do is to get the basics right, and I am pleased to hear that after six years of waiting, we are now going to have an office of standards compliance, which the Minister announced today. Thank you, Minister, but if you continue to keep employing unqualified and unfit people in positions as managers of hospitals it won't make any difference.
Doctors and nurses are struggling under impossible burdens because of enormous vacancy rates. We have 12 000 vacancies for doctors and 46 000 for nurses, at least, and all this is because we are not training enough new health professionals. Yet we have no meaningful plan for human resources development, and we are producing the same number of doctors today as we did 15 years ago. You, Mr President, and the Minister failed to stipulate how the human resources crisis in health care would be addressed.
Lastly, Deputy Speaker, another issue that affects health is good, clean water. Without good water we cannot have good health. Only 32 of South Africa's approximately 970 wastewater treatment works - that is, 3% - comply with requirements for safe discharge.
While wastewater treatment works are operated by local government, the national department needs to take strong action against municipalities that continually fail to address problems at so many of these plants. I thank you. [Applause.]