Thousands of businesses providing services to the Gauteng Department of Health are in a precarious position, with hundreds of jobs at risk after the department’s failure to pay invoices worth more than R5.1bn within the stipulated 30-day period in the first quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year, says the DA.
In a statement, the party slammed its tardiness in settling debts, saying it was severely affecting businesses that provide services to the department and which are solely dependent on the 30-day payment of invoices to pay salaries, their suppliers, and keep their doors open.
The department had paid out R1 621bn within the stipulated 30-day period and R2 447bn after 30 days, but R2 663bn was still not paid for a period longer than 30 days.
The information was revealed to the Gauteng Finance Portfolio Committee by Public Services Commissioner Vusimuzi Mavuso, who emphasised two worrying tendencies: one was the decline in the number of invoices paid within 30 days from quarter 4 of the 2024/2025 financial year to quarter 1 of the 2025/2026 financial year.
The department paid only 38% of its invoices within 30 days according to the 2024/25 Annual Report, while in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, it had similar under-performance, paying invoices within the timeframe with 35% and 42% for the respective periods.
The department is still without a chief financial officer, but in its statement, the DA noted that the post has been advertised after it had applied pressure regarding the important of filling the post. It said the systemic failure to fill critical positions was a major contributing factor to the failure to pay invoices within the stipulated 30-day period.
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