One of the most dangerous things about dealing with a person who is desperate and clutching at straws for his political survival is that he will sacrifice everything, including the truth, at the altar of cheap political expediency. One such person is the DA’s discredited and fumbling umtshopi (acupuncturist), MPL Imraan Keeka. His latest ramblings about me and my political future – which is actually none of his business - highlights the levels of paranoia and ignorance that engulf him and his troubled Desperate Alliance (DA). In a concerted bid to appease his handlers and seem relevant, Keeka makes a plethora of wild and untruthful claims, including fabricating the number of people who have died of cancer – an extremely complicated disease which Keeka oversimplifies for his own narrow selfish ends.

He even refers to a tired cliché, the so-called “oncology crisis” which is actually a thing of the past long buried in the annals of history. In a rush of blood to the head, he conveniently disregards the fact that challenges that were previously experienced regarding cancer treatment affected just 20% of cancer patients whose cancers were unfortunately detected way too late. His baseless accusations come at a time when we’ve put in place concrete systems that have drastically reduced waiting times and backlogs for those who need oncology services. But all of this is hardly surprising, as I am reliably told that whenever Keeka’s superiors are about to come to the province, he always scrambles to “find something negative” to say about our Department.

I find Keeka’s public attacks and overall cynicism disingenuous and particularly peculiar, given that in private he is always coming to me to thank the Department for the good work that it does. We are talking here about a two-faced charlatan whose own wife had a safe childbirth at Newcastle Hospital, just as in the case of all his other children, who were delivered at that hospital. If our Department was so high-risk, then why would he utilise our hospitals? Why “hate” his loved ones so much as to take them to the “slaughterhouse” that he portrays us to be? Keeka is clearly a bad actor who must never be taken seriously. Just last month, an in-law of Keeka’s received excellent treatment from our state-of-the-art Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, which is ultimately managed by myself as the provincial MEC.

If the health system was as bad as he so often claims, then why would an MPL such as him, with a medical aid, not take his family to “better” hospitals? This is sheer hypocrisy. And it’s about time the world got to know what kind of shallowness we are dealing with here. Such actions are but a microcosm of a seriously troubled party that is reeling from one scandal to another – from being mired in accusations of covering up anti-Black racism, to being left licking its wounds by the departure of key leaders such as MPL Sizwe Mchunu, a former provincial DA leader, who joined the ANC just last week. No wonder they have been branded the Desperate Alliance.

The numerous significant gains that have been made by this ANC-led Government to improve the level of healthcare - and access to it – for our people are there for all to see, even for the most hardened DA followers. I’m talking here about the DA supporters who are joining our progressive countrymen and women everyday to fetch their chronic medication closer to their homes, through the Central Chronic Medicine Dispensing and Distribution programme (CCMDD). I’m referring to the multitudes of mothers who have safe deliveries every day, and whose babies have access to immunisation programmes. They are thankful to a government run by the caring and non-discriminatory ANC. They can see that they are in good hands.

We have, indeed, notched up a number of significant achievements that the Desperate Alliance (DA) can only dream of. Among others, we have:

·       Significantly increased the life expectancy of our fellow compatriots from 56 years to 60 years on average;

·       Reduced the number of people dying in large numbers and getting buried every weekend from AIDS-related deaths, thanks to our successful ART programme, which has seen 1,3 million people initiated and sustained on Anti-Retroviral Treatment;  

·       Built clinics and Community Health Centres in many rural and previously forgotten communities which the DA’s fellow racist forebears, the Apartheid government, chose to ignore;

·       Issued bursaries to thousands of deserving children from poor homes to study medicine locally and abroad (in Cuba) to improve the primary health coverage of our communities;  

·       Circumcised more than 1 million men and boys in KZN – which is a significant proportion of the province’s population that is eligible for circumcision – reducing their chances of HIV infection by up to 60%.

·       Reduced the rate of Mother-To-Child transmission of HIV from 20% in 2008 to just 1% currently.

As we speak, we are implementing National Health Insurance (NHI) which will bring hope and guarantee that the size of a person’s pocket is not a determinant for the level of healthcare that they receive – something which the DA and other elites are vehemently opposed to. Nize nizibone.

The list of achievements made by this ANC-led government is endless. Yet, the truth that is so patently obvious somehow evades Keeka and his jaundice-eyed cronies. Despite having access to correct information through the numerous platforms of engagement in our Provincial Legislature, where the Department accounts on service delivery programmes, he chooses to publicly undermine the performance of the Department. Keeka can continue with his circus. He can carry on with his concerted efforts to paint a gloomy picture about this Department. Afterall, that is what the Desperate Alliance does best. He can continue being a pathetic politician who betrays his own conscience by lying in public. But this act will never outweigh the truth. You can’t fool all the people all the time.

This Opinion Piece is written by Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo - KZN Health MEC