LIMPOPO HEALTH MEC DEMANDS A RETRACTION AND AN APOLOGY FROM THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE FOLLOWING A LIE- RIDDLED MEDIA STATEMENT BY THE PARTY

LIMPOPO HEALTH MEC DEMANDS A RETRACTION AND AN APOLOGY FROM THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE FOLLOWING A LIE- RIDDLED MEDIA STATEMENT BY THE PARTY

Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba demands that the DA retracts its statement that incorrectly labels the department to have failed to spend its conditional grant. The MEC also demands that the DA apologizes for utilizing lies to mislead the public.

In the statement, the DA claims that the department has surrendered R71 million on top of R4,447 billion that it has already rolled over. This is a pure fabrication by the DA because the amount that it claims that the department has rolled over is even higher than the department’s budget for conditional grants.

The department wishes to put it on record that its budget for conditional grants budget was R4 billion and 444 million. By the end of the financial year, the department had spent R4 billion and 395 million which is equivalent to 98,9 % spending of the conditional grant.

In their statement, the DA claims that some of the money returned was from the grants intended for HIV/AIDS, Human Resource Capacitation, and National Tertiary Service Grant (NTSG) among others. Again, the DA got it completely wrong. The department spent those grants as follows
• HIV/AIDS Grant, the allocation was R 2021 500 000 and the department spent R2019 996 000 which is 99% spending.
• Human Resource Capacitation, the allocation was R221 457 000, and the department spent R221 456 000 and was left with a balance of only R1000 which is also signifies an above 99,9% spending.
• National Tertiary Service Grant (NTSG), the allocation was R706 150 000 and spent R706 133 000 and the balance of R17 000, which is equivalent to 99,9% spending. All these are excellent spending outcomes by any standard, and the DA was supposed to acknowledge them.

In fact, the balance of 1,1% that is left on the entire conditional grant spending results from the R 46, 7 million that the department had issued an order to procure machinery and equipment for the treatment of cancer patients from an overseas manufacturer. But because by the end of the financial year, the machine had not yet been delivered, the department could not pay the amount to the company because that would amount to irregular expenditure. Instead, the department requested for this amount of R46,7 million to be rolled over into the new financial year in line with Section 31 of the PFMA so that the service provider could be paid when he delivers the ordered machine in the new financial year.

If history is considered, the numbers above paint a picture of a department that is improving drastically when it comes to spending. No wonder the DA is now resorting to manufacturing lies because there are fewer faults that the DA can pick to satisfy its insatiable appetite to make headlines.
With all these things considered, the MEC therefore will write to the DA and demands that the party retract the outrageous statement and apologize for the spurious lies contained in the statement about the department.