The Gauteng Provincial Government has irregularly spent about R500 million on the AngloGold Ashanti Hospital in the Far West Rand, despite a short-term lease from the mining company which expired on 31 January this year.
In a response to my questions yesterday at a virtual sitting of the Gauteng Legislature, Infrastructure Development MEC Tasneem Motara said that AngloGold had offered the hospital on a short-term lease, and that there were now negotiations to extend it to a long term lease or get it donated from the company.
She said that the Accounting Officer of the Gauteng Health Department had delegated the authority for her department to do the alterations to the hospital, and the decision to go ahead with it was taken by the Provincial Executive Council.
I am astonished that no legal opinion was taken in this matter as it seems obvious that it is highly irregular and possibly illegal to spend a huge amount on a property not owned by the provincial government.
This expenditure can’t be excused by the urgent need for extra beds to treat Covid-19 patients as the hospital is difficult to access in a low population area. The extensive alterations have still not been completed, and it will need staff and equipment before patients can be accepted.
The hospital is likely to be a white elephant, chewing up money that is desperately needed to fix the ailing provincial health system.
Premier David Makhura cannot claim ignorance of this fiasco as his entire executive council took the decision to grossly over-spend on this hospital instead of extra hospital beds in more populated areas.
This illustrates the incompetence of Makhura and his entire executive as not one of them raised any objections to this hare-brained project.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is investigating this matter and I suspect that massive corruption will be uncovered.
It’s one more indication that Makhura is not fit to govern.