JOHANNESBURG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Corruption in South Africa is affecting service delivery in the health sector particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, said South Africa's Corruption Watch on Wednesday in a report.
The organization said since 2012, they have received over 700 reports of corruption relating to health. The most prevalent forms of corruption in the sector are employment corruption (39 percent), procurement corruption (22 percent) and the misappropriation of resources (16 percent).
"The criminals occupying the halls, offices, wards and dispensaries of our health centers are compounding the problems we face by siphoning funds from a kitty that is running dry and by thieving from depots that are short on medical supplies," said Corruption Watch researcher Melusi Ncala, author of the report.
He said with health centers being overwhelmed by COVID-19, the vulnerable, particularly the elderly, women, and children are the most affected by poor services.
"Our major headache as a country is to apportion scarce resources to an ailing public health sector that is inherited from apartheid South Africa." he said. Enditem
