The Economic Freedom Fighter’s (EFF) Deputy President Floyd Shivambu has criticised the celebration of Freedom Day in South Africa whilst the lack of access to public healthcare, among others, remains one of the biggest issues the current government is battling to address, 24 years into democracy.
Shivambu was speaking at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard Campus where he delivered a Freedom Day Lecture.
He says the existing clinics and hospitals are dysfunctional and do not have adequate staff or medical equipment.
“Hospitals are dysfunctional; clinics that are there, are dysfunctional… and a lot of villages do not have access to clinics here in KwaZulu-Natal in Umzimkhulu, in Ixopo, which do not have a clinic anywhere closer. What happens when children and old people get sick? What happens when women have to get proper access to maternal health care? The clinics and hospitals that are existing are dysfunctional, shortage of healthcare staff… it’s a crisis almost everywhere; shortage of medical equipment… That’s what we are subjected to in this freedom that we have to celebrate today.”
Shivambu says the drop-out rate among African students in universities, coupled with the lack of institutions of higher learning in the country are a growing concern.
“The level of poverty of our people, it even has a direct impact on the progress of students in schools, in universities. Just go and look at the drop-out rate of particularly African students in universities – because they study under unbearable conditions. The population has grown… In 1994, SA had just about 40 million people. Today, it’s close to 57 million people, but the so-called democratic government only built two universities additionally – and every year, not less than 500 000 learners write matric. Where are they going to study, and we must celebrate that as freedom?”
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