Tshwane hospital without water for five days (JUST SAD_MUST READ)

Patients at the Tshwane District Hospital in Pretoria have not been bathed or cleaned by nurses for five days because there was no water, the Democratic Alliance says.

"For almost a week now family and friends of patients are being forced to bring two litre water bottles to the hospital in an attempt to assist with the problem," said the DA's Gauteng social development spokeswoman Hendrika Kruger.

She said the reason for the problem was a fault with the hospital's valve system.

"This situation requires immediate action by the Gauteng health department as patients' wounds are not being cleaned and this could spread infection and pose a serious risk to patients' lives," she said.

The hospital and the department could not immediately be reached for comment.

• What does the Ministry of Health have to say about this issue?? I mean you cannot bring a DYING PATIENT to Hospital only to be told that that there is no water at a Hospital??

Zuma 'only wanted votes' - Julius Malema

Mpumalanga residents must demand that President Jacob Zuma make good on his promise to build a university in Nelspruit, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema said at the weekend.

He told a gathering in Bushbuckridge, in Mpumalanga, that African National Congress leaders had to be held to their commitments, The Times newspaper reported on Monday.

"Anybody who promised you the university and never acted must never be a friend of the people of Mpumalanga because he promised you lies [sic]. He only wanted votes," Malema reportedly said.

"And now 2014 is coming and we'll be having another round of elections and there is no university," he said.

In his State of the Nation Address, Zuma said R300-million would be allocated to build universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.

Malema also told the crowd to invade Nelspruit and demand that the university be built.

Referring to his possible suspension, Malema said former president Nelson Mandela and his generation had also been regarded as disrespectful.

"They were impatient and wanted change now... Even if some of us can be expelled from the organisation, do not be afraid," he said.

• 
  

Time Mugabe took responsibility

President Robert Mugabe turns 88 tomorrow and, as usual, he has granted State media wide-ranging interviews where he blames everyone but himself for Zimbabwe’s woes.


Mugabe has been in power for 32 years and despite earlier promise, the larger part of his reign has been disastrous. 

The wheels started coming off in the 1980s when political intolerance saw the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade killing over 20 000 civilians believed to have been supporters of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo. 

Nkomo was largely considered the father of Zimbabwe’s revolution, but fell out of favour with Mugabe before the killings began. 

Mugabe and Zanu PF were so intent on creating a one-party State even “Father Zimbabwe” could not stand in their way.

The new ruling elite soon abandoned the socialist ideals that oiled the liberation struggle and ministers began lining their pockets under Mugabe’s watch. 

Who can forget the Willowgate scandal in 1988 where Zanu PF ministers abused a vehicle allocation scheme to resell their vehicles at a premium? 

Then came the abuse of the War Victims’ Compensation Fund where the President’s brother in-law, the late Reward Marufu, was awarded Z$70 000 for 95% disability.

As Mugabe’s grip on power started to wane, in 1997 he awarded war veterans unbudgeted gratuities that put the economy in a tailspin. A haphazard land reform programme and even more opaque economic policies became the hallmark of Mugabe and Zanu PF’s leadership. 

The latest vehicle for self-destruction that Zanu PF is 

riding on is the indigenisation programme that has put brakes to an accelerated economic revival spurred by the normalisation of the political situation. 

Yet in his interview with The Sunday Mail published yesterday, Mugabe blames Finance minister Tendai Biti for all the economic problems the country is facing. 

Biti must have used the more than $500 million in Special Drawing Rights that Zimbabwe received from the International Monetary Fund to bankroll the agriculture sector, he pontificated. 

By the agriculture sector, he meant the same new farmers who for years received free inputs from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and up to now have nothing to show for it. 

Mugabe also accused Biti of being insensitive to the plight of civil servants by not giving them a meaningful salary increment. 

But we found this to be a bit dishonest coming from the President because the plight of civil servants is nothing new. 

The plight of civil servants caused by poor remuneration started well before Biti’s tenure and pretending otherwise is disingenuous.

Biti has only been part of Mugabe’s government for three years and came on board when the damage had already been done.

As expected, Mugabe also blamed Western sanctions for the economic collapse and does not make any mention of his previous governments’ omissions and commissions.

So until Mugabe makes an honest assessment of his track record and learns to take responsibility for his actions, Zimbabwe will remain stuck in this quagmire. 

The state of Zimbabwe’s economy is a reflection of Mugabe’s ability. Making excuses and blaming others is a way of running away from responsibility.

The danger of treading on religious toes

YOU know an important election is coming up when politicians roll out the big guns in an effort to impress constituencies. In South Africa, President Jacob Zuma, with his eye fixed on Mangaung, blames the inherited problem of "structural unemployment, which goes back to the 1970s" for the fact that he couldn't deliver the 500000 jobs he had promised last year.

In the US, President Barack Obama pushes for a new requirement that religiously affiliated institutions such as hospitals and universities have to provide full insurance coverage for birth control for their employees.

This was undoubtedly done as part of the president's healthcare overhaul, but it was a bit of a blunder because some faiths, such as the Catholics, oppose artificial contraception.

In its original form, the contraception coverage rule would have had the support of a lot of women who work for these institutions and would undoubtedly have helped scores of them.

But Obama's administration should have given more thought to how they would convince the religious community that the plan does not seek to infringe on their religious beliefs, which Americans, and Catholics in particular, hold dear .

On the flip side - and while religious beliefs should be respected and no one should be forced to compromise their faith because of government rules - it is crucial to note that these religiously affiliated institutions employ people of different faiths, as it would be illegal to hire based on religious affiliation or denomination.

It is safe to assume that in a Catholic-affiliated university's employ, for example, are women who are not Catholic and would want their employer to offer them full birth control coverage.

Birth control is an individual's choice, and while the church has every right to reinforce the tenets of its faith, it must remember that faith is what keeps its people from sin, not government policy.

So, amid the furore, Obama compromised and amended the plan to say that universities and hospitals with religious affiliations would not be forced to offer contraception coverage to employees after all. Insurance companies will now have to pick up the tab, which will probably drive up already sky-high insurance rates.

In an election year, politicians will always tell us what they think we want to hear, and had it not been an election year, Obama might not have compromised so fast.

But the church is still not happy with the concession, and the heated debate on contraception continues as social issues dominate this election campaign for Obama and the Republican presidential hopefuls.

While the economy is still a major concern for voters, it has taken a back seat for now, because the unemployment rate has dropped for five consecutive months.

As a result, Republicans get to woo the religious conservatives and Obama tries to retain, and in some cases regain, the support of women, moderates and independents.

Gauteng Service delivery not a crisis: Premier

The fact that Gauteng residents logged the most calls on the presidential hotline did not mean the province was in service delivery turmoil, Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said on Thursday.

“It is not a sign of crisis... We live in a smart province,” Mokonyane said, suggesting that Gauteng residents were the most active in voicing their concerns.

Mokonyane was addressing hundreds of people in Soweto at the launch of Gauteng's own hotline.

She said progress had been made to provide essential services such as electricity and health care, and the hotline was an endeavour to improve these and speed up the response time.

Callers would receive a response from one of the 70 call centre agents within three days.

“In some instances they will be able to respond immediately.”

Since the pilot project was launched in March last year, Mokonyane said, 95 000 calls had been handled.

“The feedback we have received since the soft launch period indicates reasonable, satisfactory levels,” she said.

The presidency set up a hotline for service delivery complaints from around the country in September 2009.