NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 180
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 14 May 2010
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 11)
Mrs E C van Lingen (DA-EC) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether he has been informed that employment contracts of community
health care workers at primary health care facilities have been
registered as volunteer employment contracts and as provincial
employees on the persal system of the provincial Department of Health;
if so, what steps will be taken to rectify the situation; if not,
(2) whether the matter will be investigated; if not, why not; if so, what
are the relevant details;
(3) whether he has been informed that some of the community health care
workers in Kouga (EC 108), in the Eastern Cape have not been paid
since February 2010; if not,
(4) whether the matter will be investigated; if not, what steps will be
taken to rectify the situation; if so, what are the relevant details?
CW217E
REPLY:
1) The Minister was not informed about the decision to change the
employment contract of the community health workers.
2) On investigation of this matter, my Department found that indeed the
contract for community health workers in the Eastern Cape have been
converted into volunteer contracts. This led to them being paid
through Persal with special provision for volunteers. This situation
arose after the Province experienced problems with the NGOs that were
contracted to pay community health workers. This decision was taken in
September 2009, as a way to ensuring that the service does not
collapse. One major problem is that this people cannot apply for
social grants because they are on Persal, whereas they are not fully
employed by the Department. Having noted that this matter is
problematic, the Department decided that the arrangement be stopped at
the end of March 2010.
3) The Minister has not been informed about any community health workers
in Kouga not having been paid since February 2010.
4) After enquiry with the Province, my Department did not find anybody
who has not been paid since February 2010. The only cases that were
not paid for some time are community health workers who could not be
captured on Persal because of age. These community health workers were
however paid for the new months that they had worked and were released
from the contract with the Department.
The Department will embark on the full work with the Provincial
Department of Health in the Eastern Cape to investigate all these
problems. Other provinces will also be asked to establish if no
similar problems are experienced so that a similar situation does not
recur.
END.