During a Legislature Committee oversight visit to the Sekhing Community Health Centre in Taung recently, we found the R130m facility closed, and two security guards being the only employees in sight.
The tender for the construction of the centre was advertised in 2012, but, after eight years, the health centre is yet to open its doors. This R130m project is another clear indication that the ANC-run North West Provincial Government is not serious about quality healthcare to residents.
The MEC for the North West Health Department, Madoda Sambatha, assured the Provincial Legislature earlier this year that the centre would open by the end of this year, after failing to open in May 2019, but the fact that not a single construction worker is on site again points to the fact that this centre will not be ready to provide much needed medical services to the residents in the area any time soon.
In March 2019, the MEC publicly announced that the facility was 90 % complete and that it would be handed over to the North West Health Department at the end of March 2019. In April 2019, the North West Health Department announced that the clinic would be opened officially on 1 May 2019, but this did not materialise.
The health centre includes an outpatient department, emergency medical rescue services, a pharmacy and staff accommodation. The clinic has however not provided a single patient with any medical care.
The community health centre remains a building site without builders. Incomplete exposed electrical wiring, weeds and bushes growing wild, large open construction excavation holes and building material are strewn as far as the eye can see.
The DA will submit written questions to MEC Sambatha to determine the tender and building processes in order to ascertain how the completion of this clinic has been delayed for eight years.
The MEC must institute an in-depth investigation to find the culprits that held up the project and heads must roll accordingly.
Issued by the DA
[link url="https://www.polity.org.za/article/r130-million-and-8-years-later-and-still-not-a-single-patient-treated-in-nw-clinic-2020-10-05"]Full DA material[/link]