The Wednesday of the first day of July 2009 will always be the most memorable moment for the community of the remote village of Gqaqala near Ugie, after the honourable MEC for Health Pumulo Masualle handed over a clinic to them.
More than 500 people braved the cold and went to attend the ceremony that marked the end to their long wait for the delivery of health services to their doorstep.
Gqaqala, a village that can only be accessed by travelling through a village that is more than 40 kilometres or 60 kilometres on gravel road from Ugie or Tsolo respectively, has never had any health facility since people settled there in the early 1900s. The sick were compelled to travel for more than 40 kilometres to the nearest hospital, St Lucy’s in Tsolo, or more than a hundred kilometres to Tailor Bequest Hospital in Mt Fletcher.
“We have been at the mercy of disease and death for a long time,” summarised one community member Buzani Botomane, who said the chilling cold brought by the snow that covered the nearby Ukhahlamba Mountains was a sign of good things to come to the village.
Yes indeed, MEC Masualle, like the Messiah, has given to the community of Gqaqhala and the surroundings the state-of-the-art multi-million rand health facility. But MEC Masualle warned the community to safeguard the clinic with their lives, while urging Eastern Cape Department of Health officials to ensure that the clinic is fully staffed, fully equipped and most importantly always have enough stock of medicines and drugs.
“This clinic must be an example to other clinics and it must provide the services it is meant to provide that means people are not supposed to travel to other far facilities again just because they are told there are no medicines,” said Masualle.
He encouraged the community to use the big yard of the clinic to plant vegetables and promised to engage the Department of Social Development to ensure that the community follows suit in planting vegetables at their homes.
Traditional leader of the village, Chieftainess Nogcinisizwe Nombewu also urged Eastern Cape Department of Health to ensure that community health workers are effective. The opening of the clinic was also attended by councillors from Elundini Local Municipality as well as senior managers from the Eastern Cape Department of Health. MEC Masuallle officially opened another clinic at Engcobo on Thursday.
Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
3 July 2009
Source: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoh.gov.za/)
