Deputy Health Minister, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, together with Eastern Cape Health MEC, Nomakhosazana Meth, officially handed over the newly-constructed Meje Community Health Centre in Mbhongweni Village, Bizana, on September 26.
The handing over of the R223 million facility brings health services to the doorstep of Mbhongweni residents according to Meth.
It coincided with what would have been the 87th birthday of the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who was born in Mbongweni Village.
“By having this state-of-the-art infrastructure here, the people of Mbhongweni will access primary healthcare services at their doorstep. This is very important, because we don’t want people to reach a stage of going to hospital,” Meth said during an address she delivered at the official opening ceremony of the facility.
She further announced that the government will spend over R400 million to upgrade Greenville Hospital in Bizana, but said that the project will be done in phases due to limited budget.
Meth said her department has set aside over R4 billion over the medium-term expenditure framework for new infrastructure development and maintenance.
According to Meth, the construction of the Meje Community Health Centre had created 420 job opportunities for locals, while a further 168 were trained in skills such as bricklaying, plumbing, electrical maintenance, painting, joinery, and general worker site preparation.
Meth said interviews were already concluded for two doctors, eight nurses, a pharmacist, and a dentist who will be manning the new facility.
“My appeal to the community is for patriotism and for them to protect public infrastructure and workers at these facilities. We are witnessing a worrying trend of community attacks on health workers, and we condemn that, as it is the same community that suffers when our workers do not report for duty fearing for their lives,” Meth concluded.
Locals have welcomed the opening of the facility, saying it will spare them the huge amounts of money they had to spend to travel to St Patrick Hospital to access healthcare services.
