Prophylaxis is needed

Did you fall ill, or have a serious accident last week?

Were you admitted to one of Gauteng's public hospitals?

If so, you may consider yourself lucky to be alive.

South Africa's richest province can't pay its suppliers and as a result food, drugs and critical equipment are unavailable across its health system. People who depend for their medical care on Premier Paul Mashatile's administration may be thinking of moving to another province but the implications for the rest of the country are just as disturbing.

As we've reported in the past fortnight Gauteng's bank account is empty and hundreds of contractors who were giving effect to government's promise of a better life for all were forced to stop work.

Some had to close shop and retrench staff when they went unpaid. After initially denying a crisis Mashatile and his cabinet eventually confirmed the dire situation and promised to remedy it.

But they were quick to add: we are the biggest province. We are the richest province. People want to stay here. We can't keep them out! We can't keep up, they might have added, but that is an evasion.

It is impossible to separate the causes of the crisis in Gauteng from what this and other newspapers have been reporting on for years: that the people who run the province have their priorities seriously mixed up.

Mashatile has been involved in a number of controversies concerning his links to big business and love for all things flashy (remember the R96 000 restaurant tab?).

Former premier Mbhazima Shilowa has been making wine and the health department is spending millions on unnecessary consultants.

It sometimes looks as if the province is run as a piggy bank for crony capitalists rather than a delivery machine for citizens.

Gauteng is surely not the only province experiencing serious challenges with service delivery and management of the public purse, but if the country's centre of gravity, with its dense concentration of media, political opposition and civil society can slip into such a parlous state we shudder to think what is happening in poorer, more distant places.

A new ANC government will no doubt be formed soon -- it had better ensure it provides some prophylaxis before the whole country ends up in critical care.