Scooter scandal: EFF calls for resignation of Eastern Cape health MEC

The Eastern Cape scooter debacle has become somewhat of a scandalous topic after Health Minister Zweli Mkhize deemed them unfit to meet the basic emergency medical services (EMS) regulations. What’s worse is that a whopping R10 million has been spent on them. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), furious, released a statement calling for the immediate resignation of the Eastern Cape Health MEC Sindiswa Gomba. 

The EFF also said Gomba must personally pay back the wasted money. 

EASTERN CAPE HEALTH MEC ACCUSED OF SCOOTER CORRUPTION

There’s been some confusion around what the scooters were to be used for and what they will now be used for. It was initially supposed to work as an emergency transport service (ambulance) for rural citizens but after being trashed by Mkhize, it was revealed that it could transport medication and other healthcare services.

Bongani Bingwa, on 702, chatted to Fabkomp owner Brian Harmse whose company was awarded the R10 million tender. Harmse claimed the tender was for clinics, not ambulances.

Either way, the EFF is of a different view entirely. It said that instead of a change in purpose, the entire scooter fleet should be done away with completely and the money reimbursed. 

“The scooters are inadequate to address the problem of distribution of medication and healthcare in the Eastern Cape, which are rooted in poor infrastructure development. The program must be abandoned altogether, and all resources used wastefulness to sustain it must be recovered and redirected to a useful purpose,” it said. 

“We call for the immediate resignation of the MEC of Health in the Eastern Cape and for her to personally pay back the money which was wasted on ineffective scooters. We cannot allow the waste of limited state resources, in a time of a global health pandemic to go unpunished, especially when there are visible signs of corruption,” he said. 

MKHIZE BACKTRACKS ON ENDORSEMENT 

The EFF said the scooter program is nothing but an “embarrassment” to South Africa’s national health efforts to fight COVID-19. Apart from targeting the Eastern Cape Health MEC, the EFF had to dig into Mkhize’s noticeable backtrack. 

“Health Minister Zweli Mkhize declared that the scooters do not meet the basic criteria for patient transport as an ambulance. This is ironic because it was Mkhize who was present at the launching of the ridiculous scooter program and was seen beaming as a passenger in its carriages,” it said. 

“For the minister to realise now how inadequate these scooters are for their intended purpose after endorsing them reveals a national health department that is not in control or providing coherent guidance to the department it leads,” it added. 

The EFF said the scooter program in the Eastern Cape is nothing but one of the many corrupt enterprises of a government “hell-bent on milking the COVID-19 pandemic for personal benefit.” 

“For Mkhize to backtrack on his endorsement of the scooters and attempt to suggest that they are now for the delivery of chronic medication is to put another mask on blatant corruption and misuse of funds. Over R10 million has been spent on the program that seemingly has no definitive purpose,” it added.