Squabbling over site must cease for everyone’s sake
Barely two kilometres – that is the distance between two sites being fought over for the construction of a new clinic in the Cwele administrative area. Traditional leaders have been at each other’s throats since 2004 over the issue. Nkosi Zamdola Ndamase of the Emchwebeni Traditional Council said villagers wanted the clinic in Cwele Junction while the now late headwoman Nkosikazi Nobonke Ndamase said Tinarha had been agreed upon as a more “neutral” site. The headwoman’s son Zolani has since taken over the reins.
For years, villagers have been forced to obtain healthcare services from a facility that, in 2016, the department of health declared the worst clinic in the country. Cwele clinic, built in Cwele village on a site owned by the Roman Catholic Church, is made of mud and is crumbling down, and nurses have to endure terrible working conditions.
Government’s efforts over the years to replace this dilapidated mud rondavel with a new, multimillionrand structure have come to naught. Hundreds of thousands of rands were spent on consultants, quantity surveyors and architects, among others, a few years ago, but the department had to pull the plug due to the impasse over its location.
Plans have once again been revived and construction of the clinic is set to commence in July. But there remains animosity.
It is difficult to comprehend that villagers have been denied access to proper healthcare simply because agreement cannot be reached between two sites, 2km apart. It is easy to blame the state when services are not delivered. Far-flung rural communities are often overlooked by the different spheres of government, which means locals have to travel long distances to acquire those services.
In the case of the Cwele administrative area, conflict within traditional authorities and within the community itself has hamstrung development. The new clinic – regardless of under whose traditional jurisdiction it will fall – will provide healthcare to thousands of villagers in desperate need.
The concerned groups were scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss a way forward. One can only hope that the leaders are able to set aside their differences and come to a compromise that will be in the best interests of all concerned.
The new clinic will provide healthcare to thousands of villagers in desperate need