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ActionSA in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature is deeply appalled by the Premier’s lacklustre and bureaucratic response to our pressing questions regarding the delayed approval of the Gauteng Department of Health’s modernised staff establishment.

While our healthcare workers face total burnout and patients suffer the severe consequences of compromised care, the provincial executive continues to hide behind red tape, "quality assurance," and endless consultation phases.

During the sitting on Tuesday, 28 April 2026, ActionSA demanded immediate, tangible executive interventions to relieve the massive pressure on our hospitals, which are currently forced to serve a population of over 16 million people using an outdated 2006 staff establishment designed for just 9.5 million.

In response, the Premier shockingly claimed that the ongoing delays do not preclude the department from recruiting personnel to fill "funded vacancies." This fundamentally misses the point. Filling vacancies on a structure that is two decades out of date does absolutely nothing to address the structural reality: the total number of posts available on the 2006 establishment is a drop in the ocean compared to the clinical needs of Gauteng today. It is a mathematical and operational impossibility to provide adequate, safe healthcare under these conditions.

The Premier’s timeline promising that the proposed structure will finally reach the Minister of Public Service and Administration (MPSA) by May 2026 offers cold comfort to the exhausted doctors, nurses, and vulnerable patients whose lives are actively at risk while politicians shuffle papers.

The Way Forward for ActionSA in the GPL

ActionSA refuses to allow this matter to be buried in administrative delays. We will be taking the following immediate steps in the GPL to hold the executive accountable:

·Strict Deadline Monitoring: We will hold the Premier and the MEC for Health strictly to their stated timeline. If the proposed organisational structure is not formally submitted to the MPSA by the end of May 2026, ActionSA will escalate this failure directly through the legislature's oversight mechanisms.

·Demand for Interim Transparency: We are submitting follow-up written questions demanding a full, immediate breakdown of exactly how many of the "funded vacancies" mentioned by the Premier have actually been advertised and filled in the first quarter of 2026, versus the actual clinical shortfall on the ground.

·Escalation to the Health Portfolio Committee: ActionSA will write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health to summon the Office of the Premier's designated organisational design specialists and the MEC.

We demand they present the finalised business case and structure to the committee to ensure it truly reflects the current service delivery model before it is sent to the MPSA.

The people of Gauteng cannot be subjected to life-threatening shortages while the government drags its feet. ActionSA will continue to fight for a modernised, fully capacitated, and dignified healthcare system for all residents.

Issued by ActionSA Member of the Health Committee Emma More