Angie Motshekga gives completion date for long-running 1 Military Hospital refurbishment

The long-running saga of refurbishing and modernising 1 Military Hospital will, according to defence and military veterans minister Angie Motshekga, be complete by January 2027.

The hospital on the northern side of Thaba Tshwane has a history of failed repair and maintenance going back to 1999 when the then department of public works, now the department of public works and infrastructure, approved a repair and maintenance project (RAMP) for the flagship military health-care facility.

This morphed into a “RAMP expansion” and further into what was described as “refurbishment” by Abacus Financial Crime Advisory in a presentation to the then joint standing committee on defence (JSCD) in February 2022.

Words and phrases such as “unsound relationships” to “continued dilapidation”, “further contract extension”, “guess estimates” and “off-the-record meetings” were used in the presentation.

In an effort to establish the present status of the hospital, EFF MP Carl Niehaus put two questions to Motshekga.

On what steps have/are and will be taken to settle what he termed are “long-standing legal disputes and court cases” regarding 1 Mil and its refurbishment, Niehaus was told the project was now a department of defence (DoD) one without “any legal or court cases”.

As to timeframes for completion of the refurbishment project, Motshekga said “once the project is funded and the contractor is on site, the project will be completed in 29 months”. Given that her answer is dated August 30, it indicates January 2027 is when the hospital, called “a white elephant” by then JSCD chair Cyril Xaba in 2022, is expected to be fully operational again.

In May, Brig David Ramaswe was named officer commanding 1 Mil and is “doing his best”, an outpatient preferring anonymity told defenceWeb.

“Service, especially at the hospital pharmacy, is far better with staff friendly and helpful,” she said, adding while she could not comment on operating theatres or wards, another plus was in the grounds: “Benches have been put under trees, providing shade for those waiting to see doctors or have prescriptions filled, which is to be commended.”

Another Niehaus question on the wider South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) and its “ability to function effectively” in the light of “serious financial shortfalls” and possible National Treasury intervention received short shrift from Motshekga. She said finance minister Enoch Godongwana did not have health specific dispensations available for “public activities from which SAMHS can benefit”.

Acknowledging the constraints forced on the South African National Defence Force by budget cuts, Motshekga said the health-care service needs to “explore alternative funding mechanisms”. Examples she gave range from reallocating existing resources to “additional budgetary support” from the DoD and public/private partnerships to ensure continuity of military health-care services.

IFP MP Russel Cebekhulu also had a question. Motshekga said SAMHS has “no engagement” with China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army on assistance to upgrade equipment but Lt-Gen Peter Maphaha’s service is “actively engaged in ongoing negotiations or discussions within the SANDF framework”. Co-operation across “various areas, including but not limited to, equipment upgrades” is on the table.

• This article was first published by DefenceWeb