Pretoria - The Gauteng health department says services have resumed after a waste company withheld its services due to non-payment. The withholding of the services left provincial health facilities in a crisis last week, as the department allegedly owed Buhle Waste Management R27 million for services provided over a period of two years.
The company was contracted by the department from 2015, but suspended its services from February 28.
Last week, the Pretoria News reported that services were disrupted at provincial healthcare facilities after the medical-waste company stopped collecting waste, claiming the provincial government had defaulted on paying them.
MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi’s spokesperson Kwara Kekana said services have since resumed. “There was an interruption of services, but medical-waste collection has since resumed at affected facilities.”
Kekana confirmed the department owed the company money, and was working to resolve the situation. A statement of accounts received from Buhle Waste Management showed the Gauteng Health department owed it R176 million.
Kekana said R8.1m was paid on March 7, and a further R2.4m paid on March 9. The balance of R9.5m dated back to the 2014/15 financial year.
Kekana said Buhle Waste and Compass Medical Waste Services had been paid monthly since the beginning of the current financial year, without fail. Buhle Waste had by the end of February been paid R69.3m, and Compass Waste R17.2m in the same period.
It was not clear yesterday whether Buhle Waste had resumed its services; Sekete had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Kekana insisted there was no financial crisis in the Gauteng health department. This was after it emerged the department reportedly owed service providers a whopping R4 billion, and was in the process of shedding the jobs of temporary healthcare workers, called in to help at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago. Doctors are reportedly feeding patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, after the department failed to pay its service providers.
Pretoria News