Cape Town - It is often said that criticising others is easier because criticism is an easy form of ego defense.
Whichever way one looks at it, there is something horribly wrong with the images of newborn babies sleeping in boxes at Mahikeng Provincial Hospital.
North West Health MEC Madoda Sambatha has since ordered an internal investigation, and for the nurse in charge together with the nursing manager to be placed on precautionary leave.
But it may have been a case of nurses merely making do with what they had.
According to the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), the ICU for infants had been short of 20 incubators and cribs, with no sign of these coming.
The unit had 25 incubators, and more than 55 babies were born on the day in question. They were looked after by only seven nurses.
While the action taken by the MEC is commendable, it is typical of political and government leaders that are constantly caught napping and out of touch with the realities on the ground.
Where were the officials who were supposed to order the cribs for the hospital? Was the MEC aware of the shortage of equipment? If not, who was supposed to inform him, and what does that person say now?
These are not questions that could be answered by the nurse who improvised by placing the babies in boxes.
A fish rots from the head down, and the incident is a reflection of what people face in public healthcare facilities not only in the North West, but countrywide.
We hope that the investigation is being conducted without fear or favour, and that those responsible will be made to pay for what they did to the future politicians, doctors and nurses who were made to sleep in boxes on that day.
Cape Times