Mandela hospital faces funding crisis
The Treasury denies it promised to cover running costs, which are not part of Gauteng’s budgeting plans
It took R1bn in donations to build the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, but nine months after its launch party, the world-class facility is not fully open yet and lacks funding to cover operational costs. Built by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and owned by a trust established by it, it was envisaged that the hospital would be a state-of-the-art facility for children needing cancer treatment, dialysis or heart operations. It has top-of-the-range equipment, theatres that can broadcast operations to remote locations for training or for communicating with specialists abroad. It looks like a children’s hotel, is decorated with wallpaper inspired by doodles, has free living facilities for 27 families and an in-house radio station. But the hospital has never been part of government’s long-term infrastructure or budgeting plans. It is estimated that it needs half-a-billion rand to cover annual operating expenses, but got R150m from the Treasury for the 2017-18 financ...
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