Executive Mayor of Waterberg District Municipality
Mong mabu: Kgoshi Seleka
Mantona a rena
Representatives from our partners Eskom
Mayor of Lephalale Local Municipality Moruti Rakate
District and local councillors
Community members
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
Programme Director
The delivery of quality and affordable health services to our people is a task that cannot be postponed. It is a task that requires all of us both in the public and private sector to work together if we are to fight and win the battle against the burden of diseases in our land and in particular our province.
When the ruling party, the African National Congress came with the dictum “Working together we can do more” we meant that as government we cannot deliver all the needed services, including health services to the community alone. We therefore need to work with like-minded corporates and individuals to deliver on our mandate.
I am particularly pleased that Eskom as a company doing business in our province and in particular in Lephalale, you have found the strategic role to play, not only to pay back to this community but to contribute to its social and health profile by amongst others the delivery these important medical and non-medical equipment.
During the recent EXCO Outreach in this area few companies have pledged to contribute towards the good and healthy living standard of this community and Primary Health Care was identified as one of the most important area that needs an urgent intervention.
Eskom stood by their pledge and today I am glad to be here and to, on behalf of the Limpopo provincial government and communities that are to benefit directly and indirectly on this generosity accept equipment worth over three million rand. These equipment, I am told is deployed at six clinics and five mobile in the area to serve the people of Lephalale and the surrounding areas.
We are grateful that you chose to invest in the health of our people in these communities. This is a clear indication that as a company, you have not lost touch with the communities you are working with. It shows that as Eskom have done a good research of the area as the equipment that you provided us is basic and needed in our clinics.
I must restate for emphasis that your contribution towards the development of a “long and healthy life for all our people” is highly commendable and appreciated. Government alone cannot be able to deliver; we therefore need to strengthen this partnership for the good of all our people.
As you would know, South Africa is faced with what the Minister of Health, Dr Motsoaledi refer to as the quadruple burden of diseases and as a department we are doing the best we can to ensure that we provide all health related equipments, however due to limited resources we are sometimes unable to do so.
I must also add that some of these diseases we are confronted with are manageable and can in fact be avoided.
The four pandemics including the following:
- HIV and AIDS including Tuberculosis (TB).
- High incidents of maternal and child mortality.
- Increasing number of Non-Communicable diseases such as High blood pressure and other cardio-vascular diseases; Diabetes Mellitus; Chronic respiratory diseases; various Cancers and Mental health.
- Violence and injury.
Our aim is to strengthen primary health care to ensure that all clinics are adequately equipped and resourced to render the first line of quality health care with hospitals used as referral points.
I am sure you are all aware that as a country we are moving from the curative health system which is expensive and unsustainable to the most desired system based on prevention, preservation and promotion of health. This we can only do when our clinics are equipped adequately to deal with the challenges that we are facing in the health sector, particularly public health sector.
On daily basis our hospitals are overwhelmed by the number of patients that come for consultation while clinics are fairly less utilised due to amongst other things lack of both medical and non- medical equipment and at times medication. Our people are gradually losing confidence in the primary health care yet it is the future and certainly the answer to some of the challenges we are faced with in the delivery of affordable and quality health care.
I believe that the provision of this equipment by Eskom, some of which are basic tools of trade will assist us a lot in restoring the pride of primary health care thus restoring the lost confidence our people held for so long. I want to believe that from this day henceforth our people will now elect to consult at a clinic than to endure expensive, long and painful journey to a hospital far from their place of residence.
Those who are receiving scheduled chronic medication will also find comfort in our clinics as we have taken a decision to implement a "ward based health model‟ in which we will plan according to the needs of the community including when distributing chronic medication. In the meantime, while finding our feet to implement home delivery system the clinics will assist a lot in this regard.
Similarly, vaccination of our children will be enhanced at clinic level as you rightfully donated vaccine refrigerators. Parents will have no reason to let their children skip any immunisation schedule as we will always have them in stock at the appropriate level of temperature thus avoiding mishaps of any kind.
As we stated before, we are moving fast moving from the curative health system to the system based on prevention, preservation and promotion of health.
We believe that vaccines will assist us in this regard as it prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection while at the same time stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity.
Programme Director,
According to the World Health Organisation, “the ultimate goal of primary health care is better health for all” and has identified five key elements to achieving that goal.
- Reducing exclusion and social disparities in health;
- Organising health services around people‟s needs and expectations;
- Integrating health into all sectors;
- Pursuing collaborative model of policy dialogue; and
- Increasing stakeholder participation
We are convinced that the partnership with Eskom and other like- minded companies will contribute to the achievement of these goals as identified by the World Health Organisation.
Eskom is setting the trend in this regard and we are hopeful that others will emulate your good deeds in assisting us to provide health services to our people. It was first Eskom to embrace the national HIV Counseling and Testing campaign for their workforce and today the same Eskom is contributing to the health and social needs of our communities and the general public.
We can only say: Re a leboga Eskom for not only providing South Africa with electricity but also to switch on the healthy light for the sake of all our people.
As part of our goal of reducing infant mortalities we are calling on pregnant mothers to visit ante-natal clinics immediately after they discover that they are pregnant to ensure that we address all their health needs on time.
Early consultation will assist both the mother and the public health facility to determine the health status of the pregnant mother thus plan properly on what needs to be done as a form of intervention.
These we can only do if we have proper medical equipment at our disposal including feotal doplers, electric glucometers, stethoscopes and many other equipment that Eskom has provided us with. We will remain forever grateful and indebted to your good will.
Programme Director, the issue of breast feeding is serious and therefore we need to make sure that we promote exclusive breast feeding for new born babies for at least six month. As we speak Minister Motsoaledi is making a proposal to create policy on breast feeding as a key child survival strategy in South Africa. At this stage the country has a low prevalence of exclusive breast feeding at 8% according to the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey, only 1,5% of children aged between four to six months were exclusively breast fed.
Breastfeeding is fundamental to the survival of all children as it amongst others provides all the nutrients the baby needs to grow and develop while at the same time builds a strong bond between the mother and the child. We would really like to encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies as breast milk contains antibodies that helps in the strengthening of the babies immune system thus prevent common illnesses such as diarrhea and pneumonia.
It is good for Eskom to plough back to the communities as the former United State President JF Kennedy once said “People must not ask what their government must do for them, but instead they must ask what they can do for their government.”
If we can have many private sector companies as Eskom, we will surely win the battle against the quadruple burden of diseases.
Programme Director
President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela once declared that the problem of HIV and AIDS is no longer a disease but a human right problem, as the department we are availing resources to ensure that the problem is fully addressed.
In order to solve the problem we have launched a massive HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) campaign and we are pleased that Eskom has embraced this campaign and together we rolled out the programme at Medupi Power Station this year.
During the campaign many people including management and staff of Eskom tested not only for HIV; AIDS and Tuberculosis but for all other diseases in order to determine their health status. These they do because Eskom has an impressive track record of putting issues of health and general safety as top priority.
However, we remain worried that the Waterberg district is still ahead of the pack in terms of HIV prevalence in the province at around 28% yet the number of people tested is very low. Of the 1 470 111 people who have tested for HIV in the province only 147
143 are from Waterberg, while Vhembe tops the list with 502 525 followed by Capricorn where 370 076 people have tested, Mopani 346 666 and in Sekhukhune 275 360 people have tested.
I am saying this so that all of us should start appreciating the fact that there is still a lot of work to be done.
Let us make this district a health project. The delivery of quality and affordable health care with an objective of building a long and healthy life for all our people is indeed huge and requires innovation and determination.
Working together, we can do more!
I thank you.
