PRETORIA, Gauteng — The Gauteng Department of Health has initiated urgent electrical infrastructure repairs at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, temporarily disrupting power to several critical care, neonatal, paediatric, obstetrics, and gynaecology units. This essential maintenance highlights the ongoing tension between aging medical infrastructure and a provincial health budget that officials say is no longer sufficient to handle rapid population growth and overwhelming service demands.
Over the course of a recent Saturday, the maternity ward on levels 8 and 9 was left without power from morning until afternoon. In total, six theatres, various wards, and critical care units were also affected by the temporary supply interruption. A spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Health explained that the outages were linked to obsolete switchgear. When municipal grid power fails, these outdated switches cause critical delays in backup generators activating.
“We have now started the process to replace them with new ones so that when there is no power, there is an seamless flow during the changeover,” the spokesperson detailed.
To prevent a total facility shutdown, the intervention—which officially began in September 2025—is being rolled out in strategic phases. The spokesperson confirmed that upgrades to the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems are already complete. During the latest phase, medical teams and doctors carefully coordinated the temporary relocation of high-risk and critical patients who depend on uninterrupted electricity. Officials estimate it will take approximately 16 hours to safely return these relocated patients to their original wards and fully normalize hospital operations.
As one of the province’s most heavily utilized academic hospitals, the facility serves the Tshwane district and manages complex referrals from as far as Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the North West. Despite the provincial health budget seeing marginal growth over the past three financial years—rising from a low of R66 billion in the 2025/2026 period to a current high of R70.3 billion—officials argue this allocation is inadequate.
The spokesperson pointed to significant migration into the province, noting that Gauteng’s four academic hospitals, which include the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere, are perpetually overwhelmed. A core issue, according to the department, is that budget allocations are calculated based on official catchment area populations, failing to reflect the reality of the massive influx of patients from outside the province.
While the department acknowledges the financial strain, the spokesperson emphasized that resolving this macro-level funding challenge ultimately rests with the Premier, who possesses the appropriate governmental platforms to escalate and ventilate the matter.
The infrastructure upgrades also come amid heightened scrutiny regarding frequent equipment failures, raised by both patients and opposition parties such as the Democratic Alliance. The DA recently alleged that hospital operations were suspended for a month due to air conditioning failures. Addressing these claims, the spokesperson acknowledged the immense pressure on the hospital but urged political actors to remain grounded in reality.
“The hospital is overwhelmed, and for opposition parties or politicians, they will always look for something to show they are taking care of the facilities, which is something they must do, but sometimes they need to be factual,” the spokesperson stated.
Until broader budgetary adjustments are realized, the Gauteng Department of Health will continue its priority-driven, phased infrastructure upgrades to ensure patient safety and operational resilience at the facility.
