Dear Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour,

I am sincerely hoping you can assist our practice. The practice is in East London, Eastern Cape. We have been struggling for 17 months to get the practice registered onto the Department of Labours, Compensation Fund, CompEasy on line submission forum.
Because they have not done this, we cannot service any of our patients with their assistive devices. We currently have 4 gentlemen who we cannot help. These men have been waiting for many many months for their prostheses. 3 of these patients have had prostheses before, 1 of them has a leg that is in such a bad state of disrepair, that he has the possibility of falling and injuring himself if he continues to use it. His only alternative will be to use crutches to ambulate but that will mean he has no freedom to do the things he has been doing with his prosthesis. 2 of the others have stump reduction and their sockets are far too large, this can also lead to them injuring themselves. The 4th gentleman is a young man who lost his arm last year. He has such a lot of potential, is motivated and has a willingness to return to work and contribute to society. But we cannot help him at all.
We have been promised by so many people at the Department that it will be days and then we will be registered but to date NOTHING has happened. I have even emailed Mr Ndivhudzanny Khphathe, who was in East London in March 2022 for a road show. He promised us that if we contacted him he would assist us. Well, he has not even bothered to answer the emails.
This situation very unfair on these patients as their human dignity is being kept from them.
There are many other patients who are in need of assistance but nothing can be done because the Compensation Fund is not helping us at all. We have one poor man who is lying in hospital and has been there for a year who is in desperate need of a specialised mattress but we cannot help him as we have no authorisation and have no assurance that the accounts will be paid.
We are in desperate need of help, please.

Kind regards
Esmé