Thank you, Chairperson Ms Oliphant. Hon Minister Dr Motsoaledi, hon Deputy Minister Dr Sefularo in absentia - oh, sorry, I thought you were supposed to sit this side - hon members, officials from the department, ladies and gentlemen, I think we all agree that the Department of Health has done phenomenal work over the past 15 years. I think a lot of clinics have been built, hospitals have been built and a lot of hospitals have been revitalised. Patients throughout the country have been started on antiretroviral treatment and even prevention of mother-to- child transmission has been introduced all over the country.
Different departments of health have been collapsed and combined into one national health system - I think we are all aware of that - which is doing the strategising and policy-making, and the provincial departments of health are actually doing service delivery in their areas.
Despite all this, we still have huge challenges in the Department of Health. I don't want to repeat what the Minister has said; he has just quoted the President. I wanted to quote the same quotation, but since he did so, I don't want to repeat it. I just want to say, to me, that statement that the President made, that was quoted by the Minister, actually says to us that all is not well in health. What it means is that health is not healthy!
You don't have to go far. You look at infant mortality in South Africa, which is one of the millennium development goals, which we are supposed to work on. You look at maternal mortality; you look at the control of TB and its allies, multidrug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB; you look at the shortage of personnel in our institutions - all this shows us that all is not well in the Department of Health. There are high death rates from infection, unlike in other countries, where most deaths are owing to degenerative conditions, which is very much a concern to us as African countries.
These are some of the things which make one feel that all is not well in health. I would like to interpret, in medical terms, what the president of the ANC, who is the President of the country, was trying to say. I think the President was saying to us that the health leadership, in medical terms, makes a diagnosis and treats the condition. Now if you make a diagnosis, there is no way that you cannot handle the problem. All I am trying to say is that this problem is not a very serious one for the ANC; we will be able to handle it. For ANC cadres who have been deployed in this department, this is not a very difficult task. We have cadres who are driven by passion, honesty and humility and this request is a very easy task, much as some of us might look at it and think that it is a difficult task. This task is neither too big nor too small to be procrastinated on by the ANC, because of these cadres I have mentioned.
If I had to take a bird's-eye view of the Department of Health and try to make the diagnosis I was talking about - as I said, if you make a diagnosis, you know what the problem is and you are sure to be able to fix it - the first problem that is a very big challenge is the inequities we find in South Africa. There is a big gap between health service to the poor and health service to the rich.
The rich in our country have very good health care service, and the poor have a very poor health care service. Obviously, this cannot be allowed to go on. This is not a normal situation, and it is making our country very unhealthy. Until health services are good for all, the Department of Health will remain unhealthy.
I want to say, people forget that if you sit in a country where there is this gap, even those that think they have a good health care system will be affected by those who don't have a good health care system. In fact, to make an analogy, I think my heart cannot rejoice and say I am well when my kidneys are having problems. I am not talking about my heart; I am talking about all of us. Your heart cannot claim that it is well, when your kidneys are diseased.
If I can use the medical terms again, if your kidneys have a problem, the next thing is going to be high blood pressure. When you have high blood pressure, your heart is going to be under strain. And when your heart is under strain, your blood supply is going to be poor and your heart is going to be affected by what is happening in your kidneys. All I am trying to say is that you cannot think that because certain people have good health care services, those that are poor can remain there and it is not going to affect you. It is going to affect you, irrespective of your situation.
You can go further and say you can be well and have your good health care system, but the person who is working in your garden, or who is cooking for you, might actually have multidrug-resistant TB, which you might not be aware of, because it has not been diagnosed, and sooner or later your children are going to be affected by that person. So you cannot have a system that caters only for you and think that you are going to be well.
I want to say, definitely, the ANC will handle this situation. As has been mentioned, we are looking to health care that will cater for everybody, so that all of us can be healthy.
The second area, which is a very difficult one, is primary health care. It has been the policy of the ANC for the past 15 years that primary health care is the policy of government.