Plans to build the first private hospital in Khayelitsha township, Western Cape, face a setback after clashes over the proposed relocation of informal settlement residents, who are objecting to being moved to make way for a facility “to serve a few middle-class families and not the poor majority”.
Families living in two settlements, New Bright and MM section of Level Two settlement, near Khayelitsha Mall, are at loggerheads with the two NPOs driving development in the township, the Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) and Khayelitsha Community Trust (KCT), reports TimesLIVE.
Some 300 residents of the settlement, which appeared in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, claim they were not consulted about plans to build the hospital and that being relocated would take away their livelihoods.
They are also opposed to the “relocation notices” coming from the KDF and KCT, and not from a court or government authority, telling them they must make way for the 120-bed hospital and a KFC outlet.
Lesley Mbaphantsi, chairperson of Intlungu Yasematyotyombeni Movement, a lobby group representing the residents, said about 300 families would be affected by the building of the hospital, which “will serve a few middle-class families and not the poor majority of Khayelitsha”.
The planned facility, to be run by Marang Healthcare, will have a 24-hour emergency unit, a dialysis unit, radiology services, three intensive care units for adults and children, a paediatric section and maternity unit and five theatres. It is due to be completed within two years.
Lungelwa Sigasana-Makaula, KCT corporate services executive, said the hospital “will bring much-needed services to Khayelitsha, which for years, has been crying for a private hospital of their own”.
Building the hospital on a 14 000m² site is part of expansion plans for the Khayelitsha CBD, which has already seen construction of Khayelitsha Mall, a Magistrate’s Court and the multi-purpose Isivivana Centre.
Affected families would be moved across the road from their existing site, she said, so objections about moving “don’t make sense”.
“The building of this hospital will unlock opportunities …those who have to pay for transport to other hospitals will have one in their own neighbourhood. Women in labour will not have to travel long distances to go to other private hospitals or add to congestion at Khayelitsha Hospital,” she added.
However, Mbaphantsi said it was unreasonable for so many families to lose their homes for the benefit of “middle-class families who could access private healthcare services elsewhere”.
“Khayelitsha is not far from some of the private hospitals, as the KCT and KDF suggest. We have a private hospital in Mitchells Plain, which is not far from Khayelitsha. Maybe if the plan were to build a public hospital to benefit the majority, those families could make compromises and move, but why should they move for the already privileged few?”
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