Marking the disability month honourable Fufe Makatong, the MEC for the department of health, deemed it necessary to honour long serving members within her department in the John Taolo Gaetsewe district. At the colourful event held in Kuruman the MEC said, “As we celebrate the Disability Month, we felt as a department that the occasion should also coincide with the honouring of our gallant workers who have worked tirelessly for the good of our communities.

 Let us support people with disabilities and not shun or confine them under hidden corners. We cannot undermine the fact that people with disabilities need equal recognition in all spheres of life. As a result plans are underway for a disability summit in the region. Another positive development is that we have formed a disability forum that will cater, in the broadest spectrum, for pertinent challenges faced by these people.

 I am also glad to share this platform with health workers predominantly nurses to honour you with long service awards. Recently we had a similar event in Namaqua, Pixley, Francis Baard and today we are in the John Taolo Gaetsewe district. The Batho Pele concept remains our guiding principle hence your dedication in this profession has culminated in this important day where we honour your significant contribution to the department.

On a different subject, in my 2018-2019 budget speech, I made stringent measures to ensure there is fluidity in meeting our department’s collective vision punctuated with realistic targets where service delivery is the common denominator. With over R1 billion of over expenditure, this is an imprudent spending by the department and such kind of spending needs to be corrected.

Over expenditure is tantamount to indiscipline in monetary terms and as a department we cannot meet service delivery goals”, she concluded. Appreciating the good work by certificate recipients, some posthumously, others retired and some on the verge of retirement the MEC encouraged the retired ones to come and volunteer as their experience was a great tool to the department.