Issued by Ministry of Health
10 August 2006
The Ministry of Health is disappointed by decision of the Democratic Alliance leader, Tony Leon to raise the profile of his Women’s Day event by launching an unsubstantiated attack on two women members of Cabinet.
Leon is reported to have accused Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Zuma of “letting women down” during his Women’s Day address in Paarl in the Western Cape.
Leon is last person to speak on racial and gender transformation in this country. He has been in the leadership of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance for the past 12 years and has made no effort to transform his white male dominated organisation to reflect the demographics of our country.
Eight positions that constitute the top leadership of the DA are occupied by men only who are predominantly white. All nine provincial leaders of the DA are white men. See: http://www.da.org.za/da/Site/Eng/People/Leadership/Overview.asp
The DA has opposed every effort by the Ministry of Health to transform the health sector and improve access and quality of health care for the benefit of the majority of people of South Africa. The DA has campaigned against Government efforts to improve access to affordable medicines through the implementation of the Medicines Act – the Act which the party unsuccessfully opposed in parliament.
All DA campaigns against the Minister of Health over the past seven years have failed dismally causing the party to change its spokespersons on health issues at least five times over the same period. They had Sandy Kalyan, followed by Mike Waters, Ryan Coetzee, Diane Kohler Barnard and now it is Gareth Morgan.
Leon should have courage to acknowledge that this Government has made tremendous efforts in addressing issues of gender equity and ensuring that its policies and programmes are gender sensitive.
More than 12 years into our democracy, the DA is still failing on both gender and race representation.
Contact: Sibani Mngadi ( Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health) @ 0827720161