The Gauteng health portfolio proved a poisoned chalice to her predecessors, but not to MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, who boasts she has overcome its potency due to her resilient energy.
The provincial health department is widely regarded as a notorious slaughterhouse for politicians, and Nkomo-Ralehoko knows she has no option but to excel.
The risk is too high, and failure is not an option, otherwise her blossoming political career could be a casualty in the graveyard of political dreams.
As deputy chairperson of the Gauteng ANC, Nkomo-Ralehoko, affectionately known as “Imama”, is on the verge of bigger challenges in the next few years.
She is in pole position to become the province’s next premier or even the governing party’s next chairperson. And yet, the same health portfolio sucked blood from the political lives of rising stars in ANC ranks before.
This includes political heavyweights such as Brian Hlongwa and Qedani Mahlangu. The latest victim was Bandile Masuku, who, figuratively, crawled back to normal political life from an intensive care unit’s political bed.
Last week, Nkomo-Ralehoko launched a legacy project, introducing biometrics to identify unidentified bodies in government facilities. She said thousands of unidentified bodies were taking up storage space in capacity-starved government mortuaries.
The project predates her, but Nkomo-Ralehoko said she achieved the feat by doing things differently.
“Some were not interested in forensic pathology services. Now we are improving it. There was an outcry that the department treated forensics like a stepchild.”
She said the target was to reduce the backlog within three months, so the department was “aggressively” focusing on training personnel competent to operate the technology.
She said the project had massive potential and could be rolled out nationally, across Southern African Development Community countries, and even internationally. The technology would also help identify unknown patients in hospitals, and criminals or police suspects.
“When the police are looking for somebody, we can help. They give us details, and once we punch in, the system identifies the person,” said Nkomo-Ralehoko.
She said the department was working on getting access to various other databases, including credit bureaus. Speaking about what could become her legacy in the department, Nkomo-Ralehoko said: “I’m always looking to come up with something completely new that has never been done.”
This week, she set herself the target of reducing surgical backlogs in the province’s 27 health facilities as part of the Mandela Day activities.
“The goal here is to fix all hospital theatres. It has never happened on Mandela Day. We’ll focus aggressively on the surgical schedule.”
Her plan is to enlist the services of private hospitals for free to reduce delays in surgical operations.
“We are strengthening the private sector relationship. Most people do not know that private hospitals report to us.” She continued: “We give them operating licenses, including extensions. But now we are regulating, and they must pay money for those services.”
Nkomo-Ralehoko said the department did not have money to pay service providers before
her stint, but now they can pay for services within the prescribed 30-day period.
“But I’m pushing our officials to reduce it to 15 or 10 days,” she said.
She said part of her intervention in reducing arrears was to have regular meetings with CEOs, supply chain managers, and finance managers every month.
“In those meetings, I bring the treasury and auditor-general to check every hospital and audit. So, I do the audit myself.”
In terms of hospital infrastructure maintenance, she said the department established a unit responsible for maintenance. I expect people to do the work they are supposed to do instead of outsourcing it to the infrastructure department. The department could handle major renovations, but not small maintenance issues.”
Nkomo-Ralehoko also said an agreement had been reached for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg to open soon. The soon-to-be-unveiled plan was expected to take the load off Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.
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