The EFF has called for the immediate arrest of legal practitioners and other officials who have defrauded the government and the Department of Health of billions of rand through medical claims.
At the weekend, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi gave legal practitioners and other officials, who have been defrauding the government of billions in medical claims, two weeks to withdraw the claims.
Motsoaledi said the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had saved the department more than R3 billion in suspected fraudulent medico-legal claims, adding that the amount was expected to increase as the investigations continued.
On Saturday, Motsoaledi and SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi briefed the media on the preliminary results of the high-profile investigation into medico-legal claims brought against the health department in various provinces.
On Tuesday, the EFF slammed the government for giving criminals the two weeks amnesty, saying the fact that the ANC government was offering a two-week amnesty to the criminals to withdraw their fraudulent claims was a “disgrace”.
“How do you negotiate with thieves who have already betrayed the trust of the people?
“These corrupt legal practitioners and medical personnel must be prosecuted without delay — anything less is a betrayal of justice. We vehemently oppose any amnesty,” the party said.
The minister said the health sector noted a surge in claims in 2015, when litigations against the government exploded with cases directed against health institutions and individual medical practitioners in public and private practice.
The EFF has called for government to increase its budget allocation to the SIU in order to equip the unit with more resources to fight corruption.
“The EFF supports an increase in budget allocation to the SIU so as to ensure maximum capacity for speedy prosecution. A country ridden with corruption in both the public and private sector must have its investigation and prosecution entities optimally functional as corruption thrives when such entities are under-resourced,” the party said on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO, Collins Letsoalo, said it was ready to assist the SIU and the department in their investigations into fraudulent activities.
Letsoalo said the RAF’s Forensic Investigation Department had, between 2020 and 2023, successfully blocked fraudulent claims worth R2.6 billion due to internal measures designed to combat corruption.
Letsoalo expressed his disappointment over the recent reports, saying: “Defrauding government departments and entities robs South Africans, claimants and their families of their livelihood … It is profoundly disappointing that some hospital patients and accident survivors encounter thieves disguised as professionals.“
The Star