I understand that's a harsh, terrible statement. However, the truth hurts sometimes. This is the truth that South Africans face at the moment. Everyone wants to complain and blame the pandemic. Well guess what? NEWSFLASH! It's not JUST the "pandemic". People have been dying in our hospitals from lack of care, lack of resources for much longer than this - all it has done is highlight the incompetence of the government. Why? Because now it is happening more regularly, it's not just one person who is poverty stricken who has no voice. It is happening weekly, the truth is coming out about the hospitals and managers who have done NOTHING, the government who has done NOTHING to improve patient care.

People who die in the hospitals, there should be some recourse of the family to sue the government for lack of patient treatment, and lack of CORRECT patient treatment.

Many Black people are refusing to seek medical assistance

During my work I speak with people from different backgrounds, I speak to people who are privileged, have medical aid, have a lot of money - people who feel as though the lockdowns have been nothing but a wonderful party because they get paid to sit at home.

I also speak to people who must travel 2 hours in one direction every day just to make it to work, then 2 hours back at night. When they go home, they don't go home to a warm house. They go home to a long walk to fill up a water container to boil water over a fire to cook and clean with. They go home to a room which has 12 people in it, who sleep across the hard, cold floor at night on top of a cardboard box to try and stay warm.

Some of my Black friends are too scared to go to the clinics for their HIV medicines. They are terrified of what will happen to them inside the hospitals. I tried my best to convince one of my friends how important their medication is - especially the ARV's for HIV. The reasons I have been told for staying away from the hospital breaks my heart. I have been told stories of how someone went to the clinic for medication but because their temperature was high from standing in the sun, they were tested for COVID-19. There was nothing wrong with them, then they were told you have COVID-19. The hospital admitted them and that's the last they heard. Then all of a sudden the person has died.

I know a lot of these talks are rumours that have been made worse by people spreading false statements, but my problem is that the people who are telling me these things actually knew the people who have died. They saw them the morning, then the weekend, "Where is NAME?" then the family says they died in the hospital after having COVID-19.

"I will rather die than go to the hospital"

That was what a friend said to me last week, then he showed me the news article about the lady who died in hospital and how her mother found her. He said he is more afraid of the hospital than COVID-19. My friend is convinced that people in the hospitals are murdering the patients.

Here is a full link to the article, as well as below image source: https://ewn.co.za/2021/08/05/gauteng-health-dept-denies-mom-s-claims-she-found-daughter-dead-in-hospital-waiting-room

The statements that the Mom was making in the video are heart breaking, I want her to release the photo she took of her daughter to the department of health and doctors. A photo doesn't lie - when a person's body is already stiff they have been dead for a while, not to mention how she described her daughter's eyes and mouth hanging open.

They have disrespected the patient in her death, and destroyed her dignity

When a patient died in the hospital's I have worked at, everything was packaged with the patient's details on it for the family. We would put it into bags and myself and the Nurse's didn't just throw it into bags. Everything was folded and neat and in as much a respectable way as it could be done. Not anymore:

Above image source: https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/health/2586096/woman-unable-to-bury-her-daughter-after-hospital-loses-her-clothes/

I haven't even gotten into the abuse that psychiatric patients are subjected to prior to their deaths. Here's another article of how SA's "healthcare" is murdering patients:

Above image source: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/kairos-centre-accused-of-negligent-conduct-after-four-psychiatric-patients-died/

I am angry

South African history is complicated and difficult, and for an outsider you may be wondering why am I saying this about "Black people" rather than speaking about all the other races in the country. For one, I have more Black friends than white friends so I spend more time with Black people. I also know that the Black people are suffering the worst poverty imaginable because of lockdowns. I have been involved throughout the last 12 years with community upliftment, helping the children who are impoverished and helping with families who have been suffering addiction (alcohol and drugs). I am angry at this government, I am so angry that I want karma to find them and return all the deeds they have done to the people who are suffering. I am angry that my friends are not getting blood pressure, diabetes and HIV medication because they are afraid to go to the clinics because this USELESS bunch of fat cat thieves have destroyed their faith in the hospitals.

Much fewer Black people have medical aid because the bottom line is they cannot afford it. When something happens to them they have a government hospital and it's either a good one, or a very bad one. Some of our government hospitals are run in a way that I would be happy to go to - but that was years ago. When I was volunteering in the hospitals I loved every second of it because each time I was there I actually made a difference to people's lives. I felt like my life wasn't a waste.

I understand that there is chaos, I understand that there are times the hospital is under-staffed, with more patients than can be treated to the best of the best care a private facility could offer. But we always made a plan. When the trauma side was full and we had no option, we put other patients into the medical ward, and when it got really bad we and we ran out of beds we designated one person to do nothing other than walk the hospital to make sure the people who didn't have beds (in wheelchairs or on blankets on the floor) were monitored. People who were critically ill were never left unattended, even if it meant that we took people who were stable from a bed into a wheelchair. We never let people die due to neglect and bad practice. People died because we couldn't fix them, and when they died, they died with dignity in their final moments, and their body was treated with respect. Now? The rage inside of me for the Mother who found her beautiful daughter dead, I have tears running out of my eyes I am so angry.

HOW ARE NONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THESE HOSPITALS POSTING THIS STUFF FOR THE COUNTRY TO SEE?? If I was working in a hospital where I saw patients were dying because we couldn't cope, I would share that on social media, I would show what is going on so that SOMEONE in higher places could intervene.

Now it's routine to starve patients to death

Above image sources: https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2021/01/28/covid-19-patient-dies-neglected

That's how much our government cares. Worse than all this, is that there are some really bad apples in our hospital systems. People who should never EVER be allowed to be anywhere near a patient, let alone a psychiatric patient! People who are the most vulnerable need the most care. These STUPID pointless enquiries and investigations, they do NOTHING.

Our health minister is / was corrupt

I say "is / was" because he has been "reshuffled" from the cabinet now and someone else (I haven't even bothered to figure it out because it's a joke) has taken over.

Above image source: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-06-exposed-and-tarnished-by-the-digital-vibes-scandal-zweli-mkhize-goes-down-fighting/

How's that for you? During the absolute worst crisis this country has had, the one person in charge of making decisions to SAVE lives, decided to steal from the most vulnerable people. Karma is coming for you.

There is a solution

South African's need to take back the power, USE the vote wisely. I've said it often enough - all politicians are corrupt liars, it's just about picking the ones who will steal and lie the least. They are all scum bags. Alternatively, what we can do is STOP PAYING TAX and create our own existence, rather than this thieving death sentence we are in.

Apologies for the rant

But I am scared of how many friends I am going to lose, not to "covid", but to the incompetent people in charge of this country. Friends of mine who have been on ARV's who have been living normal lives because of the meds, they are getting sick because their immune systems cannot cope BECAUSE the government never bothered to fix our hospitals and take any proper action.

Thousands of innocent people are going to die because they cannot get access to routine / scheduled medical treatments, and now thousands more are going to die because they are too scared of what will happen to them inside the hospitals.