Godongwana defends health budget amid shortage of healthcare workers

Godongwana

Cape Town — Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has defended the 2025 Budget and said part of the challenges he faced when he tabled the budget was the poor state of social services in poorer communities.

Godogwana was speaking during a joint meeting with four parliamentary committees to deal with finances and appropriations and he said the Budget was aimed at addressing the needs of the people, IOL reported.

“Those professional positions could not be free. We’re going to another year where we should be employing new, more professionals. What this Budget is attempting is to grapple with that question,” he said.

He said it was not just about employment but also about providing a crucial service to communities in need. He said the Health budget’s needs had accrued by R21 billion to address the issues.

Gododongwana said that while the debate on the budget continued, it was more important to address the needs of the people.
According to SABC News, The South African Medical Association (SAMA) called on government to reconsider the proposed budget allocations of the health sector and argued that the budget was inadequate to address the sector’s ongoing crisis.
Godongwana added R28.9 billion to the health budget in the hopes of retaining more than 9 000 health professionals across hospitals and clinics. SAMA’s Dr Mzukwa said the government should ensure that issues of corruption were addressed before the budget was allocated.

According to The Citizen, medical experts have raised concern over the budget and said there were unrealistic budget targets and ongoing structural challenges. Dr Angelique Coetzee from th Unity Forum for Family PRactitioners was skeptical over the government’s healthcare improvement plan.
“There are no proper stats that we can use currently to say in the community acts: the primary clinic is seeing so many patients, we need so many doctors, nurses, and allies to service specific communities,” she said.
Coetzee said the true ratio of healthcare professionals to patients, hsopitals and clinics are not reflected publicly and she said the staffing crisis continues to plague the sector.
Additionally, she said there were serious accountability and corruption concerns and said that without any measures in place, more funding would not solve any problems.

She called for greater collaboration between the public and private healthcare sectors and said healthcare should be prioritised over politics. Despite the criticisms, she also pointed out positives.

“The overall sentiment from my side might be cautiously positive. The government’s commitment to increase health expenditure demonstrates at least a recognition of the sector’s critical needs, especially in retaining the healthcare personnel and ensuring the availability of medicines,” she said.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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