Corruption-breeding political patronage an albatross -former E-Cape health chief.

Izindaba As long as political parties decide who represents us, corruption-breeding patronage will persist – as is best illustrated by the Eastern Cape's virtually collapsed healthcare delivery system. For provinces which mainly incorporated rural apartheid 'homelands' into their administrations, another albatross around their necks is the historical lack of restitution via pure per capita-based budget allocations from central government. These are the views of Dr Siva Pillay, who recently, and reluctantly, relinquished the reins of healthcare in the dysfunctional Eastern Cape, where lack of delivery equals death for too many of its 7 million residents, and history and indifferent healthcare management are the chief culprits. Pillay, who is a self-made millionaire and philanthropic businessman as well as a former parliamentarian, was a spirited, corruption-busting Superintendent General of Eastern Cape Health until December last year, when his contract was suddenly terminated after 2 years and 10 months. Hand-picked by National Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to try and solve the seemingly intractable Eastern Cape dilemma, he had fallen foul of the Bhisho political elite who, prior to cutting short his tenure, undermined many of his best delivery initiatives. They also removed most of the administrative functions he had used to overhaul systems and save the taxpayer nearly R1.4 billion in duplicate or corrupt payments. [1] Pillay, an IT expert, persisted, despite surviving a high-speed assassination attempt, a dusk confrontation in a carpark, a sinister burglary of his house and telephonic intimidation of both himself and his wife. Once, outside the Bhisho legislature, he was told by the husband of a sacked chief financial officer (among 1 870 crooked healthcare staffers he fired or forced to resign – a national departmental record), 'This is Bhisho – what you sow, you shall reap. The pit we are digging for you is getting deeper and deeper and when we bury you nobody will ever get you out. ' [2] Pillay is currently suing the province's 'union-friendly' Health MEC Sicelo Gqobana for R500 000 for defamation. Gqobana claimed in the Eastern Province Herald in January that Pillay penned a controversial memo ordering the non-renewal of contracts for Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital Cardiology Chief Dr Basil Brown and neurosurgeon Ian Copley. Pillay gave Gqobana 14 days to produce the memo – which Gqobana failed to do. Gqobana's claim came in the aftermath of a highly charged confrontation between Port Elizabeth's public sector specialists (several of whom …