The national government’s intervention in three provinces – Limpopo, the Free State and Gauteng – does not portend well for the future of provinces with the ANC having hinted in the past that their number could be reduced from nine or scrapped altogether.
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The national government’s intervention in three provinces – Limpopo, the Free State and Gauteng – does not portend well for the future of provinces, with the ANC having hinted in the past that their number could be reduced from nine or scrapped altogether.
As James Lorimer, the DA’s co-operative governance spokesman, pointed out yesterday, the intervention highlighted both the state of collapse of the provincial administrations and the need to hold the political leadership accountable. “It is a massive vote of no confidence in the three provincial premiers,” he said.
In Limpopo, where the administration could not pay the November salaries, Premier Cassel Mathale should not be allowed to continue to occupy his position, Lorimer said. Notably Mathale is a supporter of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and is no longer at the top of President Jacob Zuma’s political pops, so to speak.
Five departments – those of education, health, treasury, public works and roads and transport – had been put under national government administration after the Limpopo reported a budget deficit of R1.5 billion.
MECs, department heads and chief financial officers would be replaced temporarily by acting national government officials, cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi announced.
Meanwhile, Gauteng, which has the biggest provincial budget, had to plead for money from the national government as its continued failure to control spending in the Health Department meant that the poor people of the province continued to suffer, Lorimer noted. The person to blame was Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.
National Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi will lead the investigation and clean-up of the Health Department.
In the Free State, the provincial policy, treasury and roads and transport departments are under the spotlight. Lorimer said the man who should take responsibility for this was Premier Ace Magashule, but, like Mokonyane, he is a Zuma ally.
However, the future of Mathale has to be a matter of conjecture. The interventions may also be the first in a set of actions that will ultimately pull the plug on the provinces for good.
Profmed
The North Gauteng High Court’s judgment against Profmed Medical Scheme, ordering it to pay for post-hospital treatment for beneficiaries, could not have come at a worse time. Just two weeks ago the scheme faced deregistration threats from the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS).
Promptly after it indicated that it would be paying the prescribed minimum benefits in full at the invoiced price, the court dismissed its application to reject an order from the CMS compelling it to pay for the rehabilitation treatment of a beneficiary who was involved in an accident. The beneficiary, who was covered by the benefit rule 1E4 of the scheme option she was on, has fought a four-year battle with Profmed to recover physiotherapy treatment claims.
Although Profmed had decided to abide by the ruling of the registrar of medical schemes and made a payment of R60 000 for claims dating to 2007, claims for the two following years were never paid.
Disputes between members and their medical schemes over the payment of claims related to in-hospital and post-hospital treatment have recently caused members to lash out their frustrations on Hello Peter, a consumer rights website.
But the registrar and chief executive of the CMS, Monwabisi Gantsho, said it was difficult for the regulator to protect medical scheme members if they did not come to the CMS. “We rely on members’ complaints and if they don’t reach us there is only so much that we can do. It is critical that they approach us so we can protect them,” he said after sharing his excitement about the Profmed judgment.
The CMS said it received 5 617 complaints from scheme members in 2010. The number of complaints reaching its complaints adjudication unit has been increasing every year. Last year, 5 351 of the total complaints were resolved.
Airline taxes
Since tourism has been identified by so many countries as a provider of jobs and millions of people globally are earning a living from it in so many ways, it is hard to understand why it is being sabotaged by the excessive taxation of airlines.
These play an essential part in the tourism business and the airline industry seems to be doing more than most to reduce the pollution it emits.
Encouraged by the International Air Transport Association (Iata), airlines and aircraft manufacturers have been working together for years to reduce the amount of pollution caused by flying. Emirates airline drew attention to this on Sunday when it used a flight demonstrating the measures recommended by the Indian Ocean Strategic Partnership to Reduce Emissions to bring a delegation from the United Arab Emirates to attend the conference on climate change in Durban.
In addition to using one of the most fuel-efficient new generation aircraft, Emirates benefited from co-operation from air navigation authorities in seven countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide by following the shortest possible route and conducting uninterrupted climbs and descents.
Several airlines, particularly Air New Zealand and Dutch airline KLM and including German airline Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic Airways, have experimented with fuels based on plants, algae and waste. Yet governments have seen airlines as “cash cows” and subjected them to arrival and departure taxes.
The latest plan by the EU to compel all arriving aircraft to invest in a carbon trading scheme has drawn protests from other parts of the world on the grounds that the EU has no right to tax airlines for emissions outside its own air space. Hopefully, the bloc will change its mind
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Edited by Peter DeIonno. With contributions from Donwald Pressly, Londiwe Buthelezi and Audrey D’Angelo.
