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BL Premium reports that budget cuts imposed by the Treasury left the Department of Health (DOH) unable to fill a quarter of its posts in 2023/24, including dozens it considered critical to delivering on its mandate.
“It really has had an impact on how we function,” health director-general Sandile Buthelezi said during a presentation in parliament on Thursday on the department’s 2023/24 annual report. The Treasury imposed unprecedented in-year budget cuts in the medium-term budget policy statement last November. These cuts were only partially reversed in this year’s February budget, leaving the sector’s budget set to shrink in real terms over the medium term. The DOH described to members of the portfolio committee on health how the budget cuts had affected hiring at national and provincial level, with far-reaching effects. The national DOH had 1,122 posts in the year under review, of which 24.1% stood empty. It was able to fill only 60 of the 101 posts it had identified as priority positions, said Buthelezi. At the provincial level, thousands of community health workers had not been replaced after their contracts ended or they resigned, hampering the provinces’ efforts to provide community outreach services. Budget constraints had led to the loss of about 18,000 posts over the past two to three years, said CFO Phaswa Mamogale.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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