Date: 30/06/2003
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Receiving a donation of TV sets
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR MANTO TSHABALALA-MSIMANG, AT THE OFFICIAL HANDOVER OF A DONATION OF TELEVISION SETS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, Alexandra Community Health Centre, 30 June 2003
Honourable MEC of Health Dr Ramokgopa
Representative from the private sector, Mrs Limpo Hani
Members of the Alexandra Community Health Centre and the Alexandra community in general,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentleman
It is my great pleasure to join you today on the last day of June, the Youth Development Month. This has been a remarkable month with the whole of the country focusing on many issues affecting youth and particular attention being paid to children.
Over this month, the Department of Health has engaged in a few activities to improve the general conditions and the health status of our youth and children. We have focused on improving our immunisation coverage as well as the eradication of polio and getting polio free certification by 2005.
We have also intensified our tobacco control effort which culminated in South Africa signing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control during our National Youth Day in Geneva. This was of major symbolic significance for us as we try to protect our youth and children against aggressive marketing of tobacco products.
When one of our distinguished businessmen, comrade Tokyo Sexwale, approached me with a donation of R1 million to buy something for children in hospitals, the first thing that came into my mind was the happiness that this gift will bring to many children in our hospitals. We considered various things like toys, but we thought that it was better to buy something like television sets that can be permanently there to entertain children in our facilities.
Many of the children in our facilities are not only in pain because of the diseases affecting them, but also because of loneliness and the sad reality of being away from home and families. The children that are going to benefit from this donation come from the poorest sections of our country, which were designated by the President as nodal points. These districts require particular attention in terms of rural development and urban renewal programmes. That is why we have chosen them as beneficiaries of these 351 TV sets and, as you know, Alexandra is one of our urban renewal projects. This Community Health Centre in particular is approximately 90% funded by the Department of Health.
This donation from Mr Sexwale and family is an indication of the caring ethos that is beginning to characterise South Africa's response to the many challenges facing our communities. These gifts show that we are not only providing vaccines and medicines to fight diseases affecting our children, but we care about their total well being and strive by all means to guarantee them a better future.
We hope that these television sets will not only entertain our children, but will also educate them through many educational programmes that are supported by the Departments of Health and Education. Programmes such as Soul City, which is recorded at this specific clinic are important because they address many problems facing our children and the society as a whole.
I hope that as staff members we will not deprive our children of these programmes and tune into channels that broadcast soap operas and other programmes that are not targeted at educating and entertaining children.
This donation is also a significant contribution to our ongoing Hospital Revitalisation Programme aimed at improving the overall conditions of our hospitals and clinics. Over the last two years, funding for the Hospital Revitalisation Programme has taken a great leap forward. We have R717m in the budget this year - and this increases by almost R200m in 2004.
Presently, we have 27 hospitals on our list - and 18 of these projects involve the building of entirely new facilities, either to replace an existing hospital or to create a new service.
Hospital revitalisation also involves technology maintenance, replacement and innovation, as well as the development of managers and management systems and improving quality of health care in general.
This programme therefore does not only address the challenges of inadequate health infrastructure, but it also builds management capacity. It ensures that our managers and health workers in general are able to respond to the needs of our clients and treat patients with care and respect in line with the principles of Batho Pele and the Patients' Rights Charter.
In addition to the increased funds for the Revitalisation Programme, there has also been an increase in funding for infrastructure as part of funds that are allocated at a provincial level.
Provinces are currently using such funding to sustain the process of upgrading and expanding the network of clinics and community health centres; to increase the pace of replacing old equipment; and to undertake smaller renovation projects and routine maintenance.
As we undertake all these efforts to improve the conditions of our facilities and service delivery in general, we need the support of the community to ensure that new equipment and TV sets we are distributing today do not get stolen.
Over the past few months, our facilities have been target of criminals who attack our health workers. The National Occupational Safety Conference held in Sun City last week highlighted the challenge facing our health workers as they become victims of attacks in our facilities. It was noted that patients and relatives or friends of patients are the main perpetrators of these crimes.
Most of our facilities have improved their security systems. But at the end of the day these are health facilities that should be accessed by everyone. It is, therefore, the duty of communities to protect these facilities and health workers serving in them.
These are your institutions as the community. Criminals come from our own communities and they are, in most cases, known to us. We have an obligation as members of the communities to work with police and provide information that will lead to these criminals being arrested and convicted.
It is up to us to decide whether we want our children to watch these TVs here or for them to end up in somebody's backroom. It is up to us to decide whether we want health workers to dedicate their efforts in providing service to us or we want them to work under constant fear of being attacked.
We have the power to protect our emergency health services personnel from being hijacked as they respond to our own needs as communities. Stopping these criminal activities is one of the best things that we can do as a community to ensure that health resources reach those in greatest need.
I would like to thank Mrs Limpo Hani for representing our kind benefactors at this important ceremony. Please convey our gratitude to Mr Tokyo Sexwale and the family. We thank them for being our partners in improving health care services. Their contribution will go a long way in making the visit and admission of our children to our facility a comfortable experience.
Thank you
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Receiving a donation of TV sets
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR MANTO TSHABALALA-MSIMANG, AT THE OFFICIAL HANDOVER OF A DONATION OF TELEVISION SETS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, Alexandra Community Health Centre, 30 June 2003
Honourable MEC of Health Dr Ramokgopa
Representative from the private sector, Mrs Limpo Hani
Members of the Alexandra Community Health Centre and the Alexandra community in general,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentleman
It is my great pleasure to join you today on the last day of June, the Youth Development Month. This has been a remarkable month with the whole of the country focusing on many issues affecting youth and particular attention being paid to children.
Over this month, the Department of Health has engaged in a few activities to improve the general conditions and the health status of our youth and children. We have focused on improving our immunisation coverage as well as the eradication of polio and getting polio free certification by 2005.
We have also intensified our tobacco control effort which culminated in South Africa signing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control during our National Youth Day in Geneva. This was of major symbolic significance for us as we try to protect our youth and children against aggressive marketing of tobacco products.
When one of our distinguished businessmen, comrade Tokyo Sexwale, approached me with a donation of R1 million to buy something for children in hospitals, the first thing that came into my mind was the happiness that this gift will bring to many children in our hospitals. We considered various things like toys, but we thought that it was better to buy something like television sets that can be permanently there to entertain children in our facilities.
Many of the children in our facilities are not only in pain because of the diseases affecting them, but also because of loneliness and the sad reality of being away from home and families. The children that are going to benefit from this donation come from the poorest sections of our country, which were designated by the President as nodal points. These districts require particular attention in terms of rural development and urban renewal programmes. That is why we have chosen them as beneficiaries of these 351 TV sets and, as you know, Alexandra is one of our urban renewal projects. This Community Health Centre in particular is approximately 90% funded by the Department of Health.
This donation from Mr Sexwale and family is an indication of the caring ethos that is beginning to characterise South Africa's response to the many challenges facing our communities. These gifts show that we are not only providing vaccines and medicines to fight diseases affecting our children, but we care about their total well being and strive by all means to guarantee them a better future.
We hope that these television sets will not only entertain our children, but will also educate them through many educational programmes that are supported by the Departments of Health and Education. Programmes such as Soul City, which is recorded at this specific clinic are important because they address many problems facing our children and the society as a whole.
I hope that as staff members we will not deprive our children of these programmes and tune into channels that broadcast soap operas and other programmes that are not targeted at educating and entertaining children.
This donation is also a significant contribution to our ongoing Hospital Revitalisation Programme aimed at improving the overall conditions of our hospitals and clinics. Over the last two years, funding for the Hospital Revitalisation Programme has taken a great leap forward. We have R717m in the budget this year - and this increases by almost R200m in 2004.
Presently, we have 27 hospitals on our list - and 18 of these projects involve the building of entirely new facilities, either to replace an existing hospital or to create a new service.
Hospital revitalisation also involves technology maintenance, replacement and innovation, as well as the development of managers and management systems and improving quality of health care in general.
This programme therefore does not only address the challenges of inadequate health infrastructure, but it also builds management capacity. It ensures that our managers and health workers in general are able to respond to the needs of our clients and treat patients with care and respect in line with the principles of Batho Pele and the Patients' Rights Charter.
In addition to the increased funds for the Revitalisation Programme, there has also been an increase in funding for infrastructure as part of funds that are allocated at a provincial level.
Provinces are currently using such funding to sustain the process of upgrading and expanding the network of clinics and community health centres; to increase the pace of replacing old equipment; and to undertake smaller renovation projects and routine maintenance.
As we undertake all these efforts to improve the conditions of our facilities and service delivery in general, we need the support of the community to ensure that new equipment and TV sets we are distributing today do not get stolen.
Over the past few months, our facilities have been target of criminals who attack our health workers. The National Occupational Safety Conference held in Sun City last week highlighted the challenge facing our health workers as they become victims of attacks in our facilities. It was noted that patients and relatives or friends of patients are the main perpetrators of these crimes.
Most of our facilities have improved their security systems. But at the end of the day these are health facilities that should be accessed by everyone. It is, therefore, the duty of communities to protect these facilities and health workers serving in them.
These are your institutions as the community. Criminals come from our own communities and they are, in most cases, known to us. We have an obligation as members of the communities to work with police and provide information that will lead to these criminals being arrested and convicted.
It is up to us to decide whether we want our children to watch these TVs here or for them to end up in somebody's backroom. It is up to us to decide whether we want health workers to dedicate their efforts in providing service to us or we want them to work under constant fear of being attacked.
We have the power to protect our emergency health services personnel from being hijacked as they respond to our own needs as communities. Stopping these criminal activities is one of the best things that we can do as a community to ensure that health resources reach those in greatest need.
I would like to thank Mrs Limpo Hani for representing our kind benefactors at this important ceremony. Please convey our gratitude to Mr Tokyo Sexwale and the family. We thank them for being our partners in improving health care services. Their contribution will go a long way in making the visit and admission of our children to our facility a comfortable experience.
Thank you
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
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