Recently another chest-beating article in Daily Maverick, I can't remember which one, said South Africa is in the top 20 of the most crime-ridden countries in the world, ahead of failed states Libya etc. Among the most corrupt too.
Corruption and criminality is easy to get away with because organs of state and state employees ignore it or are inept, negligent and themselves corrupt. A case in point is Cyril Ramaphosa, not long ago fatuously hailed as SA's saviour by the wishy-washy liberal-left including media, is himself neutered by fear, indecision and alleged corruption - if it walks like a duck ...
I've direct experience of the NPA, SAPS and a state pathologist freely giving, because they were friendly, malleable, in awe of authority and simply corrupt, information of an ongoing investigation regarding a suspicious death to an accused and legal representative of the accused, Western Cape Government employees. The case has been forever been kicked down the road because neither the NPA or courts have the stomach to prosecute official malfeasance.
So too the professional inquiry board into the accuseds' professional conduct which granted them extraordinary leeway, likely coaching their responses. A board member was a business partner with one of the respondents. The head of the organisation ignored the complainant's concerns. The case was dismissed. But this is not unusual for how things are done here.
A few months ago I wrote to the Health Ombudsman aka Office of Health Standards Compliance and Health Professions Council of SA that a Southern Suburbs primary healthcare clinic, part of the Mediclinic group was allegedly billing for fictitious services, in effect charging for referrals they're not permitted to by convention. They even have an account code for it: "writing of motivation for special procedure" and charging R200. This was during Covid where exploitation was commonplace but likely continues to occur..
One would think the health regulators want to prevent, limit and prosecute corruption - OHSC and HPCSA are members with SAPS, SIU and NPA of the Health Anti-corruption Forum Ramaphosa established three years ago. Oh, the ironies! Ramaphosa and HPCSA, which the SIU investigated for bribery and then health minister Aaron Motsoaledi described as "dysfunctional", part of an anti-corruption forum.
To my complaint the OHSC said it doesn't investigate individual doctors only "organisations" (they said they're a "creature of the National Health Act", whatever that means). The HPCSA said they don't investigate"corporate organisations" only individuals. South African Medical Association washed its hands of it by referring me to OHSC and HPCSA.
What joy this would be to the c!inic if they could hear this! What joy it is because they continue to harass patients to pay including with debt collectors. They can continue overbilling and charging for fake services because the regulators don't give a toss. The clinic has not responded to queries instead passing me to debt collectors.
This is not the first time I've personally experienced this type of indifference and I'm convinced many other people do too. Yet the liberal-left are obsessed with the public protector side-show, a recent DM op-ed calling Mkwebane a "foe of the Constitution [sic]"! Do these people have no other concerns?
Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti Venetian crime novel The Temptation of Forgiveness (2018), which I just reread, the philosophical and classics-quoting Brunetti investigates a scheme similar to the one describe above - a pharmacist and doctor bilking patients and the state health system with fake referrals and prescriptions and overcharging. Brunetti noted the amount obtained from the fraud was relatively small and one perpetrator didn't need it. It seems the fraud itself was the object. South Africans are familiar with that.
Perhaps in fiction and Europe, where civilised standards still apply, the guilty are punished. To an extent South Africa deserves the government it has but I wish those who supported the ANC all these years would take some responsibility.
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