Recently it was reported that Gift of the Givers, a charitable organisation, has been distributing food to hospitals in the Eastern Cape. This was reportedly due to the provincial health department being unable to ensure adequate food supplies to patients due to what was termed a “budget shortfall”. If even partially true it is an iniquitous situation for State hospitals to find themselves and begs the question, why has it come to this?
I have written on many occasions that we should expect greater accountability from those responsible for the management of health departments in this country. This is not the first time the unacceptable conditions in Eastern cape Hospitals have drawn media attention. In fact in my book I describe the dismissal of Noziswe Madlala Routledge as Deputy Health Minister by then President Mbeki in August 2007 for daring to openly criticise the conditions in hospitals at that time, largely in the Eastern Cape. Many other incidents over the last 20 years have drawn attention to the state of hospitals and the health services across the country and in that province. Surely a situation such as that reported in the Eastern Cape Department of Health reflects a lack of accountability.
However, this is not the reason that I was motivated to write this piece. After reading the report of the intervention by the Gift of the Givers, I reflected on the many areas where this Non Profit Organisation (NPO) has stepped in when government has appeared either unable to do so or the response has been slow and inadequate. These interventions range amongst others from responding to natural disasters, providing water to drought-stricken areas, alleviating hunger and to providing healthcare. On their website the organisation is described as the largest disaster response non-government organisation of African origin on the African continent. Over the last 29 years it has provided R3.8 billion rand in aid in 44 countries. An impressive achievement by any measure. I am left wondering why R3.8 billion can be so efficiently and effectively utilised by an NPO and why an organisation of this nature and size is needed to step in to assist an provincial government health department with an annual budget that far exceeds R3.8 billion. Clearly I am over simplifying the issues and health departments have infrastructure and staff establishments that should provide a wide and complex range of services on a daily basis. However, it does question the efficiency and effectiveness of government departments as opposed to that of an organisation such as Gift of the Givers.
My thoughts on this issue were further stimulated when recently I watched on Sky News Dame Kate Bingham, the former Chair of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force in the United Kingdom, giving evidence to a standing committee of the British Parliament. She is a biochemist and what is described as a venture capitalist. As the Chair of the Task Force she headed a collaboration between industry, academia, government regulators, scientists and manufacturers to develop and deploy a vaccine against COVID-19 in record time. In the evidence to the committee she described the unconventional process by which the task team achieved what was required in record time, but lamented the fact that in her view the lessons that could have been learned have been ignored and that the UK Government has reverted to business as usual. This in her view has resulted in slow decision making and inefficient deployment of resources. She advocated an overhaul of the British Civil service to focus on outcomes rather than process. This sounded all too familiar to me, having experienced the growth of government processes and bureaucracy in the South African Government since the heady days of transition post 1994.
It was reassuring on one level to realise the challenges faced in Britain are similar to those that we face in South Africa but on another depressing that governments around the world remain inflexible and in many instances either slow or obstruct progress. I am certainly not advocating a removal of sound administrative processes as when this occurs, as tragically occurred in South Africa with the usurping of rules and regulations in the name of the pandemic, billions of rands are wasted through fraud and corruption. Nevertheless we need to learn from the flexibility and success of entities such as the Gift of the Givers and the Vaccine Task Force.
The moral compass of a person such as the founder of the Gift of the Givers, Dr.Imtiaz Sooliman, driven by his Muslim faith is a characteristic to which I have also referred to previously. Decisive leadership that is ethical, moral and is focused on the outcome rather than the process clearly produces results.
My question is, if the Eastern Cape health department had leadership and management with these characteristics with the funds at their disposal, would or should patients in the hospitals in that province have required the Gift of the Givers to provide a basic necessity such as food to their patients? Would the decisions of management have been different if the funds, even when less than optimally required, had been utilised differently focusing on the needs of the patients such as food, which is surely a prerequisite for quality healthcare?
The experience of the Vaccine Task Force, accepting that it was operating under exceptional circumstances, echoes what I have proposed previously, which is that administrative barriers between government departments should be breeched and that the expertise that exists in the private sector and academia should be integrated into a collective approach to solve the challenges that face South Africa today. Even in the roll out of the ambitious and very challenging initiative to vaccinate the South African population against COVID-19, it appears that government remains wary of relinquishing control and remains fixated on central command and control.
An organisation such as the Gift of the Givers, and there are others in this country, show us how much can be achieved with limited resources and even more important shows how committed individuals operating within a flexible environment can make a real difference. This a lesson here that we need to take to heart if we are going to improve the lives of South Africans in a meaningful way.
Update 23rd July 2022: Just watch this Twitter video …
https://twitter.com/nosh15/status/1550421503489019906?s=20&t=9PBoHEZ7i_MO8KdrdlWVJw
One Comment
Faiza Steyn
Amen Prof. I was blessed to work for you …a most iconic person for 9 years. I salute you and am grateful for the many lessons learnt and your unmatched wisdom. Wow, you immediately grasped what Islam stands for. Dr Sooliman is one of those human beings who in his every waking moment, lives to serve mankind with an ethical fibre second to none. Its his awareness and consciousness of his fellow being that drives him and he is unstoppable in creating good in this world. He and his team do not get perturbed and entangled in the boundaries of stifling processes. They have only the good intent and end goal in mind..and that is to unselfissly help the vulnerable in need. In Islam if one has that kind of resiliance and belief and courage in ones creator, Allah and the universe gravitates towards you and takes care of the obstacles we call processes. Dr Soolimans pure morals, unshakeable faith,drive and unconditional hope is a lesson in how govts should operate and perhaps then our vulnerable communities will thrive and there will be less corruption. For indeed, if every one helps his neighbour then who will need help. I pray that we have more leaders out there who thinks like you, recognise and acknowledges that it is not rocket science to create a better world and a thriving nation. All it takes is sincere collaboration and pure ethical and moral intent. The rest will fall into place by itself.