The response this week from state health officials to our story that some of their former psychiatric patients have been killing people is instructive.
Valkenberg hospital, which treated and released the patients, says such tragedies in other countries prompt, at the very least, a full-blown commission of inquiry. Not so here.
The Western Cape provincial Department of Health, clearly caught unawares, initially did not even think the deaths merited a provincial investigation. The national Department of Health, meanwhile, went first to Valkenberg – to check the hospital’s information and to chastise the official responsible for its release.
The department’s response reeks of damage control. “The department is gravely concerned that people with psychiatric disorders may become stigmatised through such reports,” department director for mental health and substance abuse Melyvn Freeman wrote.
At worst, the health officials can be accused of complacency. At best, it is merely grim resignation.
Because shocking though it is, the Valkenberg story is just another symptom of the disease that racks the state health service: a lethal mixture of underfunding, incompetence and political point-scoring.
The other symptoms are legion: KwaZulu-Natal stops sending out ambulances to rural areas; Gauteng closes some of its busiest emergency facilities; medical staff are paid to quit the service; premature babies are allowed to die.
And, of course, in every single case it is those who are in the most desperate need, the poor, who suffer. How many health MECs, how many senior officials in the national Ministry of Health actually use the public health service they run? Western Cape MEC for Health Pieter Marais, for one, cheerfully admits he wouldn’t dream of going to Groote Schuur – not when he and his family can afford to go private.
Few can question the Ministry of Health’s policy to direct limited resources toward primary health care, to extend clinics across the country to provide health care on the ground.
But there is a widening gulf between what Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma wants and what the people are actually getting. New clinics often lack staff, established clinics give their staff pay-offs.
But rather than address this issue, Zuma instead seems far more interested in ousting Director General Olive Shisana – the one state official who has kept the clinic momentum going.
People in rural townships spend hours waiting for an ambulance, if one comes at all; Zuma’s priority, meanwhile, seems to be to ensure Shisana takes the fall for Sarafina II.
Public health is supposed to be about providing an accessible, competent and trustworthy service. It should be a cornerstone of democratic governance.
Instead, we have a service that allows former state psychiatric patients to wander around untreated and unmonitored … and we feign surprise when one of them kidnaps, rapes and murders two little girls.
Grandstanding
Western Cape Attorney General Frank Kahn last week called a press conference to announce that police investigations into allegations that the leader of the National Party, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, had paid for sex with a young man had no basis in truth.
It was reported, by the South African Press Association, that he went on to say he had not “applied his mind” to questions as to whether charges would be pressed against the Mail & Guardian. According to Sapa, he added that he would be “guided by Van Schalkwyk” in this regard.
The M&G is pleased to hear that police inquiries have supported our original contention, that the allegations against Van Schalkwyk appeared to be a political smear. But we are bewildered by the attorney general’s other remarks.
Kahn’s responsibility lies in the area of criminal and public litigation and we are unaware of any grounds on which criminal charges could possibly be brought against us. We are also surprised that Kahn should be seeking a lead from Van Schalkwyk where the discharge of his duties is concerned.
In the wake of Kahn’s pronouncement as to Van Schalkwyk’s innocence, the leader of the NP reportedly indicated that he would not be pursuing a libel action against the M&G, but would refer the issue to the media council for its consideration.
Heated controversy in journalist circles has shown that the ethical issues surrounding our original decision to publish the story are in need of clarification.
We therefore welcome the referral of the matter to the Media Council, in which forum we intend to reiterate the position we have taken from the outset: that where the leader of the opposition is the target of a smear campaign and is the subject of a formal police inquiry, it is a matter of public interest and should be reported as such.