Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, all protocol observed. Speaking in three minutes on two budget speeches is impossible. [Interjections.] It is not fair. It will never be fair.
Let me just say that I would like to congratulate the Minister of Health on his recent appointment to what is an extremely challenging position. Let me congratulate the Minister again for his honesty when he spoke about the 10 points he has found to be wrong. He said that that is what he has found out. At least he is honest. When a man is honest, he can get somewhere.
Inequalities in health care have always been a major concern to us, and this is why we have advocated for a national health insurance. We cannot continue to have a situation where only 35% of doctors cater for 35 million people in public health facilities, while 65% of doctors cater for 7 million people who are covered by private medical aid.
However, it is crucial that this mammoth task is performed carefully and with the best interest of our people at heart. The Freedom Charter that was adopted by the people says, "There shall be houses, security and comfort for everybody." [Applause.]
Let me speak about social development.
The role of the Department of Social Development is crucial in a country where millions of our people are unemployed, live in poverty and are caught up in a daily struggle for survival.
During the current and ongoing recession, however, it is absolutely imperative that we extend the reach of this department to provide a safety net for all the vulnerable people in our society, especially our children. [Interjections.] No, there's no conclusion yet! [Laughter.]
The department also needs to run joint programmes with the Department of Home Affairs to ensure that vulnerable households are able to access identity documents and therefore the grants to which they are entitled.
We also call on our President, the hon Jacob Zuma, to sign the Children's Act urgently, which would ensure the provision of money to cash-strapped civil society organizations providing services to children. The Children's Act itself was passed in 2005, its amendments were passed in 2007, and the full regulations were approved by Parliament last year. So, we call on the President to sign that Act.
Let me say this in conclusion: Let us be fair to the people and also vote for the opposition parties, so that their voice can be heard in Parliament, so that we can have chance of debate. Thank you. [Applause.]
Dr S M DHLOMO (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, hon Ministers present, Minister of Health and Minister and Deputy Minister of Social Development, colleagues, MECs from various provinces, Director-General of Health, Mr Thami Mseleku, and Director-General of Social Development, Mr Vusi Madonsela, on 30 July, I will get an opportunity in the province from where I come to expand on the budget that I will announce as an allocation for our province. It suffices to say that it will be R17 billion.
It is the second highest budget allocation in the province, the highest being the education budget. It is also worth mentioning that 60% of that budget will go to personnel, since health care service delivery in any country, including ours, is a labour-intensive process. However, programmes must continue to be done within those constraints, despite that challenge.
Our Minister has expanded on the 10-point plan, and I will speak about one of the 10 points later in my contribution. It is worth mentioning that at the 14 hospitals that I have managed to visit over the past few weeks since I was deployed to be the MEC for Health in that province, I have met various management leaders in those hospitals, and it is true what the Minister has said: The most common problems you pick up in those hospitals are in finance management; infrastructure and procurement services and processes; recruitment and retention of staff; revitalisation programmes that have been delayed and health information systems.
In my previous deployment as a brigadier-general in the SA National Defence Force, SANDF, it was very humbling to notice that our SANDF has a very good health information system. A soldier in the Western Cape can travel the whole country and be picked up in Limpopo, and you can tell their health profile by just pressing a button. We are humbled to know that our Minister of Health has tasked us to look into these issues in our various provinces, and we will take that responsibility.
The Minister has spoken about the 10-point plan, and some of these points touch on the Millennium Development Goals. I would like to refer to some of them in relation to my province. KwaZulu-Natal has the highest HIV and Aids prevalence and incidence, and we, therefore, probably need to do more than other provinces. Therefore, there is a priority that this department must work in a militaristic approach in the province.
Why do we need the militaristic approach? Because there is evidence that our former MEC for Health, who is now a premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize, once had control of malaria in the areas of Indumo and Ingwavuma. It was a door-to- door campaign identifying those who were infected, spraying homes, giving people treatment and supplying them with bed nets. From over 30 000 people who were infected and more than 1 000 deaths, death controls were achieved, and they had zero deaths in a year. We are, therefore, confident that if it worked on this, we will also be able to achieve that.
Maybe I should indicate what our militaristic approach will be. It will be to deal with the following: It will focus on the 10-point plan called Accelerated Implementation of HIV and Aids. It will zoom in mainly on infant mortality. The number of children who are born, but do not celebrate their first birthday, is unacceptably high. All these deaths are related to preventable diseases which are largely infectious.
We know that there are pockets in the country that are doing well and others that are not. For instance, in my province, Durban North is one of those suburbs that have a low infant mortality as opposed to Inanda, Amawoti and other areas like those. It is not a pleasing picture that children under the age of five die in our country. The highest contribution, again, is related to infectious diseases.
TB is one of the problems that we still have to deal with. There is evidence that if people are tested early and put on treatment, we can prevent HIV progressing to Aids. We also have evidence that if people start treatment with a very high CD4 count of about 200, we then have a low mortality rate amongst those. Therefore, now that we know it works, we need to give it to them.
Sifuna ukubelapha besesesimweni esigculisayo. [We want to treat them before their health deteriorates.]
We would like to also scale up, as an honour to our women in the country, cervical cancer screening in the province. Such screeening is unacceptably low.
With regard to maternal mortality, in some villages in South Africa, giving birth has ceased to be a happy experience. Either the mother or the child, or even both, die before they go home. The highest common causes of these deaths are HIV and Aids, hypertension in pregnancy, and mothers not attending clinic sessions so these can be picked up very early.
In our province, within a month, my colleague, the MEC for Education, and I will be launching a campaign called Siyafunda Sakha Isizwe Esinempilo. As an answer to one hon member from Cope, we will be looking at adolescent health; we will be promoting the "no drugs and no weapons in schools" campaign while we are also putting up the programme of health.
We know that the success of this programme is pivotal to what our province has taken as a point of departure, being agriculture. We want to talk about one school, one garden; one clinic, one garden; one hospital, one garden; and one church, one garden. Those who may not need these gardens must do it for the sake of those who do. We would like you to do this even if you may have to donate this to other people. Food supplements are, strangely, now part of medication. Patients cannot be started on TB and HIV treatment unless they have food parcels. We want to do away with this, and get them food parcels from other sources rather than it becoming part of medication.
Lastly, we hope that doctors in our community will take up government's offer and stay there and work. In my province, one of the leading doctors had just lost in the by-elections where he was standing as a Cope candidate. [Applause.] We are very mindful that improving patient care and delivery in our hospitals is necessary prerequisite for the National Health Insurance, NHI. Thank you.