Psychiatric patients at the Weskoppies Hospital are suffering from yet another power cut this year after the Tshwane Metro Council switched them off for non-payment of R1 million.
Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya announced on her X account yesterday (5 May): “This facility owes the City of Tshwane R1 million. We’ve switched them off. We encourage all customers who have outstanding bills with the city to settle them.”
Other X users criticized the decision to cut power to a hospital with vulnerable patients.
The Gauteng Health Department then weighed in on X, saying “the processing of the R1.2 million owed to the City of Tshwane for March and April electricity consumption was already under way at the time the municipality effected credit control.”
They claimed that generators and solar power would enable patient care to continue while the electricity supply was reconnected.
But this backup power is insufficient to fully power the hospital, leaving many patients in the dark with only cold water available. Their meals will also be cold.
Earlier this year, there was a power disruption for several weeks because of power cable problems. Nurses had to use cellphone light to dispense medicine to patients who were sometimes violent.
The latest power cut at the hospital should have been avoided by mature engagement between the department and the council, instead of patients yet again being the victim of inefficiency.
Last month, the department revealed in reply to my questions that they owed a total of R225 million to municipalities which they blamed on money shortages and invoice problems.
The DA in Gauteng will continue to push for payment of all suppliers within the legally required 30 days. Ideally, as in the DA-run Western Cape, payments should be within 15 days, which assists businesses instead of forcing them to bankruptcy because of outstanding bills that can be for more than a year.