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SAHPRA dismisses abuse claims

todayJune 3, 2025 71

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The CEO of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela, has rejected workers’ claims of being bullied into not taking leave and returning to the office.

Semete-Makokotlela says employees were informed about the organisation’s hybrid policy and its expectations.

“The point they raised about them being bullied into not taking leave is absolutely incorrect. I can say with certainty that it is false. If you look at out leave records at this point, we have someone on leave and it’s going to be even more so now because staff need to be able to utilise their leave by June,” says Semete-Mokokotlela.

The SAHPRA CEO says it’s disappointing that a matter pertaining to one staff member, whose grievance over a leave dispute, was blown out of proportion to make it seem as though the entity bullies its entire staff into forfeiting their days off.

“At some points there are staff who are on leave because we do understand that people sometimes need to take a break. So that is absolutely false and I can state that categorically,” says Semete-Mokokotlela.

Her remarks come days after workers at SAHPRA, under the banner of the Public Servants’ Association (PSA), took their frustrations at the institution to the doorstep of the Minister of Health in Pretoria, calling for the CEO’s head, among other things, with some saying they are being denied their leave days due to the shortage of staff.

Semete-Mokokotlela admits that the entity is short-staffed, but dismisses claims that employees are being forced to come to work.

“The issue of being short staffed and used as an excuse again is not true. We’ve got our leave record of staff being on paid sick leave. Yes we are short-staffed. However, usually its an accommodation between the line manager and the programme where they will be kindly asked to please stay a bit longer on duty and to reserve their leave days for a later stage. It happens in any organisation where you negotiate with managers,” adds the CEO.

PSA also claims that the revocation of the authority’s hybrid employment policy, where they were afforded the opportunity to only report three days a week to the office while they work form home on others, has hampered their productivity.

The union claims that the authority makes decisions without consulting its employees.

Semete-Mokokotlela says the authority introduced the policy during COVID for safety and health reasons.

She says staff members were already aware that the authority’s hybrid employment policy may require them to come work in the office if the need arose.

She’s rejected claims that workers are compelled to work from the office.

“On the hybrid policy it was a policy that we consulted them with and it was even approved. It’s very clear in the policy that when there are operational requirement, they may be asked to come into the office.”

“We have backlog of applications. This means that there is medication which SA citizens need which could be available in SA but its not available today because SAHPRA has a backlog. It’s critical for us as a public entity to ensure that the tax payers’ money that funds about 40% of our operations is utilised adequately. We cannot sit with a regulator which has a backlog that affects access to medicine,” says Semete-Makokotlela.

The biochemist also says workers particularly need to come to the office as the authority is undergoing an audit.

“When the organisation looked at its readiness for these audits (by AGSA and WHO), we were not satisfied. So we then cannot sit back as management and the board and not say let people come back to help close these gaps we are facing,”  explains Semete-Mokokotlela.

PSA also claims that staff at the authority are subjected to harsh punishment when they the suggest ideas to help improve some of the issues at the entity.

Semete-Mokokotlela says she has never received a proposal from any of the employees.

“Even as I sit, there is no proposal before me that staff have given me to help address any issues at the authority.”

She expressed confusion at staff being perturbed about reporting to work, when the organisation had relayed it to them on numerous occasions on their need to fill the gap caused by the backlog at the entity, stating that the country’s health is critical and that every employee at the entity must put in the hours of work.

She says it’s also intriguing how the demonstrators complained about spending more money now that they have to report for work, saying when they worked under the hybrid policy, their salaries were never reduced as opposed to other organisations which implemented reductions and revocations of salaries for their employees.

She adds that none of the authority’s contracts between them and employees states that they will work remotely on some days, saying the policy was actually a privilege.

“If you take a look at our upcoming audited annual report, you will see that for the last quarter of year when we communicated that we are coming back, our productivity improved.”

Semete-Mokokotlela says SAHPRA needs to fix operational deficiencies before the hybrid policy can be revived.

The National Health Department is yet to comment on the requests SAHPRA workers have made to the Minister over their concerns. Written by Odirile Rabolao

Written by: Lindiwe Mabena

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