Nelspruit - Mpumalanga Health and Social Development MEC, Dikeledi Mahlangu has urged managers and employees in her department to respond promptly to service delivery expectations.
Speaking at her first meeting with the employees in her department on Monday, MEC Mahlangu said the public's faith in health and social services needs to be restored.
"After 15 years in government, we can no longer make excuses as to why we cannot meet at least the minimum delivery expectations of our people.
"Many of them have no alternative and rely solely on our services. We can no longer postpone these expectations," she said.
The MEC said managers needed to meet all service delivery deadlines, paying service providers in time and attending to clients and patients in time.
"We need to reposition our service delivery implementation strategies in a manner that not only restores human dignity of our people, but also restores faith in the public service by our people.
"Challenges will always be there, but we have to pull our collective energies and delivery on the electoral mandate given to the ruling party," she explained.
She also clarified rumours that the provincial health department would be put under administration.
"No decision has been taken either by the premier or me to put the department under administration. We don't know the origins or basis for this rumour," she said.
However, she admitted that there was an "urgent and collective" need to attend to the management of the department's finances.
MEC Mahlangu said her 24 years of experience as a leader of labour movements in the province put her in a good position of understanding the challenges in the health and social development sector.
