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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau

Beitbridge East legislator Cde Albert Nguluvhe has challenged Government and its development partners to accelerate investment in the construction of more primary health care facilities in his constituency where there is a serious shortage.

It is estimated that nearly 100 000 people stay in the rural part of the constituency.

Cde Nguluvhe said the development of any area needed integrated efforts from all players.

He made the remarks during the handover of 100 bags of cement he donated to the Dumba community in Ward 15 who have also mobilised their own resources to build a clinic.

Cde Nguluvhe said the construction of more clinics was in line with Government’s thrust and the Zanu-PF 2018 manifesto which makes access to affordable and quality healthcare a priority, especially in the rural areas and newly resettled areas.

“It is pleasing to note that the community in this area, through their own resource, have mobilised resources to build a clinic at Dumba business centre,” he said.

“To complement such a good initiative, I have sourced 100 bags of cement for them to mould more bricks towards the completion of the project.

“So far they have cleared the site, drilled a borehole, moulded 20 000 standard bricks and have organised themselves to provide labour. If we continue working together we can do more in terms of infrastructure development.

“At the same time, I want to urge our local authority, Government and development agencies to put more resources in the construction of more health care facilities in this area, where we have a serious shortage.”

Cde Nguluvhe pledged to continue working with communities in his area to accelerate infrastructure development projects.

He said it was important to distribute resources evenly across all the 13 wards (seven in rural and six in town).

Dumba Clinic Project chairman, Mr Kossam Mbedzi, said the completion of the clinic will address some of the challenges in the area.

He said the institution would serve over 12 villages that are located more than 15km from Beitbridge town and Shabwe area.

“We are motivated to do more by our Member of Parliament’s gesture of goodwill,” said Mr Mbedzi. “At the moment our health situation is dire and in most cases we have to ferry patients to the nearest facilities using donkey pulled carts.

“In some cases people are paying at least R600 to hire a private motorist to town in cases of emergency.”

A senior village head in the area, Ms Eve Nguluvhe, said the construction of more clinics will ease some challenges women were facing, especially expecting mothers.

“It’s sad that we still have expecting mothers going to stay at the main hospital to access maternal health services, when such services can be decentralised through the construction of more health facilities with standard facilities,” she said.

Chairman of Ward 15 Disaster Response and Risk Management Committee, Mr Albert Masiya, said part of the funds used to procure resources for the Dumba Clinic were raised through a livestock community development project that was being rolled out by a consortium of non-governmental organisations in the entire ward.