Staff at Lesotho hospital say it’s been crippled by influx of unqualified political staff appointments

  • 📰 dailymaverick
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 67 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 30%
  • Publisher: 84%

South Africa Headlines News

South Africa Latest News,South Africa Headlines

Wage bill at flagship Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital balloons by R48-million over a year as politicians appoint family members.

Wage bill at flagship Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital balloons by R48-million over a year as politicians appoint family members and friends

The government has acknowledged that the huge rise in employment was the main cause of salary payment delays, over which staff went on strike this year. Notably, Sekatle’s daughter, ‘Maphakisane Sekatle, got a top post in the hospital: finance manager. When we asked Sekatle how she had been hired since positions had not been advertised, and whether her father had influenced her appointment, she redirected us to Thakane Mapeshoane, the hospital’s Public Relations Officer. Mapeshoane said: “The management of the hospital said they do not know how she was hired … just as we do not know how the others were hired”.

“People began arriving out of the blue and were immediately assigned to positions that had not existed before. Some old staff members had new people invading their offices and being paid more,” said one staff member. “Some of these people were fresh out of school, while others had not even graduated, even though they had completed and were still waiting for graduations and certificates, but they were appointed into high ranking positions.

Examination of the appointments suggests that most of the new employees had jobs created for them, many positions that were created had no formal job descriptions, and many of the new positions duplicated work already being done by existing staff.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in ZA

South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Probe Finds Political Connections Crippled Lesotho Hospitalitemprop=description content=The Queen Mamohato 'Memorial Hospital was opened in 2011 and run, along with three other clinics, as a public private partnership between the Lesotho government and the Tšepong consortium. The health minister who presided over the hospital's transition to public private partnership was Semano Sekatle, a representative of the All Basotho Convention party which was leading the governing coalition and took the decision to end the public private partnership at QMMH. Sekatle as well as his principal secretary at the time, Khothatso Tšooana, are now accused by hospital staff of using this management change for their personal and political gain, a GroundUp investigation has found. Many of the new appointees from last year are either relatives, friends, or fellow members of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) from Lebakeng and Abia constituencies, the political strongholds of Sekatle and Tšooana. Both were appointed by the ABC-led government to lead the Ministry of Health and oversaw the termination of the Tšepong contract.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

South Africa: Political Appointments Cripple Lesotho Hospitalitemprop=description content=Analysis - Wage bill at flagship Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital balloons by R48-million over a year as politicians appoint family members and friends
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Cosatu reiterates call for Tshwane to reinstate workers booted over wage strikeDespite Mayor Cilliers Brink agreeing to accept a memorandum from the federation, he was not available to do so on the International Day of Descent Work.
Source: ewnupdates - 🏆 30. / 53 Read more »

Cost of living crisis: LITRE OF PETROL higher than SA hourly minimum wageThe recent petrol price increase saw the price of 95 unleaded cost more than the minimum hourly wage aggravating the cost of living crisis.
Source: TheSAnews - 🏆 25. / 59 Read more »

IMF staff, Ghana agree first review of $3 bln programmeThe International Monetary Fund and Ghana's government have reached a staff-level agreement on the first review of a $3 billion loan programme, paving the way for a disbursement of $600 million once it is approved by the IMF's executive board.
Source: ReutersAfrica - 🏆 31. / 53 Read more »