BY LERATO PHOSISI
R250
A community clinic in Pretoria North is running on diesel and patience after the City of Tshwane cut its electricity over an unpaid bill. 3 June 2026 — Jack Hindon Clinic has been without municipal power for two weeks, and this is not the first time. The facility suffered the same power cut last year over unpaid municipal accounts, the Democratic Alliance revealed.
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health Dr Jack Bloom MPL says the Gauteng Health Department’s failure to pay has forced the clinic onto a generator that guzzles about R3,000 in diesel every day. More than R60,000 has already been spent keeping basic services running. Nearby elderly residents say the noise starts before sunrise.
“When Clinic Committee Member Raymond Ditsi raised this with Health MEC Faith Mazibuko, she told him he was ‘out of order’ because it was a financial matter,” Bloom said. “That attitude explains why this keeps happening.”
The DA argues the problem is province-wide. A written reply to parliamentary questions last month showed the Gauteng Health Department owes Gauteng municipalities R144 million for electricity. Bloom has since alerted Acting Head of Department Dr Darion Barclay to the situation at Jack Hindon.
“It is senseless,” Bloom said. “We are burning R3,000 a day on diesel while delaying payment for electricity. That money should go to medicine and staff, not to cover administrative neglect.”
Ward Councillor Quentin Meyer says patients are bearing the brunt. For a clinic that serves vulnerable residents daily, reliable power should not be negotiable.
The DA says it will keep pressing provincial government to settle municipal accounts promptly. The message from Pretoria North is blunt: healthcare cannot run in the dark.
