28 January 2005
I am glad that we have this opportunity to get together as we begin the year that marks the beginning of the second decade of our democracy. Normally, we meet as this collective at the end of the year during the closing function. But we have a reason to take some time off and welcome in our midst, our new Director General.
I hope most of you had good holidays and you enjoyed the festive season. As you know that health is an essential service which mean we cannot shut down all our operation for Christmas and New Year. Some of us have had to work during this season and I would like to thank all of you for the dedication in ensuring that things do not come to a standstill during this period.
As you know, we had many challenges during the year 2004 including the Tsunami Disaster, floods in some parts of the country and cases of measles, which we have had to respond to during the holiday season. We also had to deal with some pharmacists who are seeking to undermine the Department's efforts to make medicine more affordable and accessible to all of us. There was also a team working on a new model for rating the risk of donated blood so that we can do away with the use of race to determine whether blood donations are of high or low health risk.
I am mentioning these things so that we can all understand that we are working in a challenging sector. There are things that cannot be put on hold just because most people are going on holiday.
The reason we are meeting here is for all of us as the staff of the national Department of Health to have an opportunity to meet our New Director General Thami Mseleku. He assumed duty during the first week of January.
He was previously a Director General in the Department of Education. He rose within the rank of the Education Department where he started as a Chief Director for Human Resources. He later became a Special Advisor to the then Minister of Education, Prof Sibusiso Bhengu before being appointed the Deputy Director General for Human Resources and Corporate Services in that Department.
Mr Mseleku started his career as a teacher before joining the University of Natal where he was a lecturer under the English Language Development Scheme and Department of Second Language Studies.
He holds a:
As you know, this Department has been without a Director General for about 16 months. It has been a very challenging period as we had to forge ahead with the implementation of many critical programmes without a head of the Department.
At a management function held on Monday to welcome the new DG, I expressed my appreciation to the people who acted on this position for the good work they did. They are our DDG's, Dr Kamy Chetty and Mrs Nthari Matsau. I also mentioned that the welcoming of the DG could not just end with the management and requested that this function be organised so that our new DG can be introduced to all the members of the staff in the National Department. I took this decision because I believe that the success of this Department is dependent on the dedication of each and every one of us. Our contribution as support services and clerical staff, administrators, assistant and deputy directors as well as senior management is essential to the functioning of this Department.
This is the best way to start the year and I have no doubt that our DG is going to provide us with the strategic direction we need to ensure that we remain focused and we deliver on our mandate.
Having been a Director General before it should be easier for Mr Mseleku to rise up to the challenge of ensuring that an organisation as huge as the Department of Health is able to function effectively. Like any other department, I am sure that education had its own problems. But I have cautioned the DG that the challenges of this department are much more complex. We are dealing with a highly emotive issue, which is the health of our population.
There are those who view our efforts to improve quality and access to health services for all our people as a threat to the privileges reserved for them by the old order. Others feel that we are tempering with their profit by ensuring that health services are affordable to our people.
As you know, we have developed a number of policies and progressive pieces of legislation to provide a framework to deliver health care services and improve the quality of lives of all South Africans. The most pressing issue now is to ensure that these are effectively implemented and monitored.
I am sure we will all continue to work with dedication to ensure that we achieve these objectives. I have no doubt that we are all determined to deliver quality health services to our people. We are all here to ensure that this department functions effectively and meets the health needs of our people. Our DG is joining this Department to assist us in giving direction towards achieving these noble goals.
So let us all welcome our new Director General, Thami Mseleku to the Department of Health.
Thank you