Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi says corruption has become endemic in South Africa and has an increasingly negative effect on women.
Buthelezi was addressing his party’s Women’s Day rally in Ngwelezane near Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.
He has emphasized the negative effects that corruption has on the health sector.
“Just this week, Corruption Watch issued a report that reveals how corruption is growing in South Africa, particularly in the health sector and in schools. As much as you talk about fighting corruption, it has become endemic. It is taking a high toll in the country. This is most evident when you talk about healthcare in the clinics and hospitals. How can women be expected to sit in queues for hours on end, not getting treatment, and many arrive at the hospitals at the crack of dawn and they stay for hours on end and at the end of the day they are told to come back tomorrow?”
Buthelezi also says the health care system is failing women and children.
“We all know of someone who has suffered severely because of the healthcare system which is failing our country. How is it possible, for instance, that a woman who is struggling with depression can only get an appointment with a counselor 8 weeks from now. She has already reached a crisis point. How must she now cope with all the demands on her? We weep when we hear of babies and infants dying unnecessarily due to the lack of appropriate and timeous treatment. In so many clinics medication is out of stock and in so many of our hospitals our nurses are overworked to the point of becoming negligent through no fault of their own.”
Earlier, IFP Youth Brigade Chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa took to the podium to urge youth, especially men, to be at the forefront of protecting vulnerable women and children.
Hlengwa also highlighted inequality in the workplace.
He has called on the Public Protector to investigate the top 50 companies registered on the JSE on how they pay men and women doing the same jobs in their respective companies.
