JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng — A leading medical specialist has stepped down from one of South Africa’s premier public hospitals, citing a culture of corruption, administrative gridlock, and institutional neglect that he says has rendered the healthcare system “broken beyond fracture.”
Professor Adam Mahomed, Head of Internal Medicine at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, confirmed his departure following a Public Protector’s report that exposed maladministration and destructive infighting between the Gauteng Department of Health and the Department of Infrastructure. The report detailed how departmental blame-shifting has stalled critical repairs to sections of the hospital damaged by fire during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Public Protector’s report was an indictment of what we all thought: that we are being played on a chessboard between a department of health and department of infrastructure,” Prof. Mahomed said. “One blaming the other. But the end result was that staff, nurses, doctors, cleaners, patients were bearing the brunt of this.”
Although the report’s findings concluded in 2024, Prof. Mahomed emphasized that conditions have not improved in 2025 or 2026. Unrepaired wards, delayed equipment procurement, and critical staffing vacancies lasting six months to a year continue to undermine service delivery. Routine maintenance—distinct from fire-damage restoration—remains stalled due to inter-departmental disputes with “no real ownership or responsibility being taken.”
Prof. Mahomed described a bureaucratic environment so dense that basic operational decisions become impossible. “There’s so much red tape. There’s so much paperwork. You don’t know whether you’re coming or going,” he said. He noted that the hospital continues to operate under an acting CEO, a situation he argues inhibits decisive, long-term leadership.
Despite these challenges, Prof. Mahomed pointed to evidence that efficient, ethical service delivery is achievable. He highlighted an 80 million rand project to restore hospital stores, completed ahead of schedule and without corruption through a public-private partnership. “It’s not that it’s impossible. It’s just we need the proper mindset to say our focus is the patients,” he stated.
He alleged that corruption infiltrates procurement at every level. “Why are we paying contractors exorbitant prices?” he asked, citing examples where government pays significantly more for basic goods—such as bread priced at 27–30 rand versus a market rate of 15 rand—and where medication is purchased at premium costs without delivering premium quality. He challenged officials to navigate the procurement process themselves, describing a cycle of paperwork, rejected signatures, and delayed approvals that can postpone vital equipment orders by up to a year.
The crisis extends beyond Charlotte Maxeke. Prof. Mahomed noted that Baragwanath Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital, and Rahima Moosa Hospital face identical pressures: infrastructure decay, staffing shortages, and ongoing theft of materials like copper pipes—with no reported prosecutions. Meanwhile, the public health system has failed to expand capacity in line with Gauteng’s growing patient population.
He expressed deep concern over the national paradox of thousands of unemployed doctors and nurses alongside a collapsing public healthcare infrastructure. “The system is not even fractured. It’s broken,” Prof. Mahomed declared. He called for accountability to begin at the highest levels, stating that meaningful reform “has to be led by the president himself.”
Reflecting on why these systemic failures have persisted for decades, Prof. Mahomed offered a moral assessment: “I think people have just become so corrupt that they have forgotten their essence of being a human being. The essence of being soft, kind and gentle to a fellow human being.”
He proposed a direct measure to test political commitment: remove private medical aid coverage for parliamentarians and require them to use public healthcare facilities. “Let’s put the money where your mouth is,” he said, referencing Namibia as an African example where policy shifts have driven tangible reform.
Prof. Mahomed concluded with an urgent appeal for immediate action: “Nothing is lost if we start today… But it needs leadership from the front and it needs ownership and responsibility… The time to change is now and the time for accountability is now.”
