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Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, kicked off her national stakeholder dialogues in the Eastern Cape with a visit to the Nqamakwe Municipality in Butterworth.
Madonsela paid a surprise visit to the Butterworth Clinic, where shortages of medical equipment and the ill-treatment of volunteer caregivers emerged as big problems.
She said in a statement that of the clinic's 12 consulting rooms, only three had blood pressure meters which had been the case since last year.
Staff told Madonsela that they also lacked a number of other vital pieces of equipment, including gluco-meters and diagnostics.
The Public Protector continues her Eastern Cape visit in East London on Wednesday.
