There are thousands of health-care professionals in SA who go beyond the call of duty — who are upstanding and do everything within their power to help their patients heal.
We have come to appreciate their work more over the past year as they toiled relentlessly while the world was grappling with a then-unknown virus, Covid-19.
We salute them for all they do.
And then there are those who simply bring shame to the profession.
On Wednesday, we reported on convicted Nelson Mandela Bay doctor Bongani Nqini who was seemingly up to his old tricks by handing out medical certificates for cash and booking healthy people off work.
On arriving at the surgery, a reporter was asked by the receptionist if she was there to see a doctor or for a sick note.
When she responded that she wanted a sick note, the reporter then gave her own diagnosis and got to say how long she wanted to be booked off.
At no point was she examined by the doctor, who later stamped the certificate and sent her on her way.
Since publishing the report, The Herald’s social media pages have been flooded with comments from readers who felt the doctor was being unfairly targeted and should be left alone.
But the problem is that according to the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), Nqini was suspended in March and thus barred from practising medicine or issuing sick notes. But he continues to do so anyway, seemingly unperturbed by the suspension.
That is a problem to which we cannot turn a blind eye.
If there are more doing so, they too should be exposed.
These actions contribute to high absenteeism in SA and it ultimately affects the economy negatively.
The latest available statistics by Occupational Care SA (OCSA), from 2013, indicate that absenteeism costs the SA economy about R16bn a year.
The figure is no doubt significantly higher by now.
Absenteeism often results in temporary workers having to be hired or others having to work overtime to fill in.
That places pressure on employers’ finances and, if it continues, could lead to job losses.
Sick leave is a right — no-one is disputing that.
But abusing that right and turning a blind eye to what is tantamount to fraud is exactly why we have a growing culture of unaccountability in SA.
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