The Eastern Cape government plans to continue with its R10m scooter project. News24 reports that this was according to Premier Oscar Mabuyane who said the 100 scooters acquired by the Eastern Cape Health Department was first discussed by the national Cabinet last year as an innovative intervention for primary healthcare in rural areas. "We said we don't want people in hospitals, we must have capacity in our clinics to distribute medicine."
Mabuyane said he had commissioned a comprehensive report on the project after the provincial government and health department were criticised.
"It’s a service that we need (in the Eastern Cape). We have got to reconcile it with all the other issues, and so on, to make a point that we remove all doubt and all the negativity around it," he added.
The controversial scooter project will, meanwhile, be included in an investigation into contracts and tenders that were using money earmarked to fight coronavirus infections in the province. Daily Maverick reports that the auditor-general has confirmed that the tender for motorcycle clinics that was put out by the Eastern Cape Health Department as a COVID-19-related project will be audited.
“The project you are referring to is one of the COVID-19 related initiatives the auditor-general of South Africa (AGSA) is looking into. This is part of a special national audit dispensation of the relief funds the AGSA has agreed to with Parliament and the government. When it has completed its work, the AGSA will report its findings of all such audits through the set reporting processes,” said AGSA spokesperson Africa Boso.
The controversial R10m tender for the mobile clinics powered by motorcycles was completed in May and reported as a project that used COVID-19 funding, according to a procurement document presented to the Office of the Premier. The department, however, subsequently said that as the project required the training and licensing of more than 100 health workers, it would be rolled out over a number of years.
Daily Maverick reports that Brian Harmse from Fabkomp, the company that won the tender, has made it clear that the Health Department has ordered mobile clinics and not ambulances. He said he was asked to show the scooter ambulances to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize as he only had one clinic available at the time.
The department has admitted it showed national Health Minister Zweli Mkhize the wrong vehicles. But in her policy speech delivered at the end of May, the MEC for Health, Sindiswa Gomba, said the department would be using the scooters to amplify its emergency medical response.
[link url="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/mabuyane-pushes-on-with-controversial-medical-scooter-project-in-the-eastern-cape-20200721"]Full News24 report[/link]
[link url="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-21-auditor-general-to-probe-scooter-tender-as-part-of-covid-19-audit/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=First%20Thing%20Tuesday%2021%20July%202020%20Caveat%20Legal&utm_content=First%20Thing%20Tuesday%2021%20July%202020%20Caveat%20Legal+CID_b6e2bda1c8dc82d07584594904ac6343&utm_source=TouchBasePro&utm_term=Auditor-general%20to%20probe%20scooter%20tender%20as%20part%20of%20Covid-19%20audit#gsc.tab=0"]Full Daily Maverick report[/link]
See also
[link url="https://www.medicalbrief.co.za/archives/ec-controversy-over-motorbike-ambulances-and-clinics/"]EC controversy over motorbike ambulances and clinics[/link]