By Mzukona Mantshontsho
COSMO CITY is celebrating over 20 years of existence this year. This for me is a time for reflection for the community of what has worked well, what has not and what we can learn from that to improve our community.
There have been concerns around the non-provision of a proper health facility by the Provincial Department of Health as there is a growing need.
Cosmo City continues to grow as a place of choice. That number has increased substantially over the years with backrooms being built, mostly in the RDP houses, and now even in the semi-financed houses and bonded houses. The recent developments and job opportunities in Cosmo City have created an influx into the area, which cannot be avoided.
The Current Development: Cosmo City has a mobile clinic that was donated by Samsung through the Provincial Department of Health that is open from Monday to Friday between 7.30am and 4pm. According to the head of the mobile clinic Sister Theodorah Khumalo, the services that are provided currently are:
Consultation of minor ailments,
Monitoring of Chronic Diseases,
Antenatal Care,
Post-natal Care,
Reproductive Health,
HIV/AIDS Counselling and Testing,
Immunisation (for children between 6 weeks and 12 years),
Door-to-door home-based care, and
Referrals for free male circumcision.
She can confirm that per day they attend to an average maximum of 120 patients, making it about 2400 patients a month as they are not open on weekends and public holidays. The staff complement is: Three Sisters, Three Nurses, Two HIV/AIDS Counsellors, Seven Extended Public Works Programme workers who help with administration work and queue marshalling, and 30 door-to-door home based care workers. There are currently three consultation rooms and one HIV/AIDS consultation and testing space.
There is a new structure that has been built and should be complete soon that has been donated by the AIDS Foundation through the Provincial Department of Health and will have 5 examination rooms. Sister Thoedorah Khumalo insists that there is a dire need for a hospital as patients are sent as far away as Krugersdorp (Yussuf Dadoo Hospital) and Coronation Hospital in the Raheema Moosa District.
Context/Background
Perfect Start Ministries, a Non-Profit Making Organisation (NPO) and based in Cosmo City has a dream of having a Cosmo City Holistic Wellness Centre at the corner of Tuvalu Crescent and Australia Street, in extension 4. The NPO is currently helping around 100 vulnerable children with food through a food garden located on a 20,079 square metre (about 2 hectares) land given to the NPO through an application at the Johannesburg Property Council, according to founder member Muzi Nkosi. These vulnerable children are also taught how to maintain the food garden and plough the land.
According to Muzi, the NPO has the following dreams for the land:
• To have a Clinic,
• To have a Skills Development Centre,
• To have an Early Childhood Development Centre,
• To have a bigger Food Garden than the one they have,
• To have an Employment Agency to address the unemployment issue,
• To have a Foster Home for the destitute, and
• To have Social Workers on call at the facility.
The NPO did have concerns about the fact that Cosmo City didn’t have a clinic and had voiced those concerns to the Provincial Department of Health under the leadership of then MEC for Health Papo.
The NPO approached the Provincial Department of Health to get funding to build the holistic health and wellness centre on the land it had been given.
The response from the Department of Health through Chief Director Peter Mathole was that the department had secured land at the corner of Tanzania Drive and Angola Street, and with the department’s resources and capacity, they would build a health facility for Cosmo City residents.
Perfect Start Ministries was surprised when the Provincial Health Department sent two officials (Constance Mudau and Nthabiseng Nkopane) to request half the land to build a clinic. Surprised because the department had said they had secured the land and had the budget for it.
In a follow up meeting with then MMC for Health Nonceba Molwele and delegates from the Department of Health, the department said it was willing to work with the NPO on the land to build the clinic. Perfect Start Ministries responded with a letter saying they were willing to work with the department.
Perfect Start Ministries received a letter of acknowledgement from then ANC Ward 100 Councillor Annacletta ‘Nonny’ Raphata that the councillor was endorsing the building of a Cosmo City health facility on site 3469 Tuvalu Crescent.
In another telephonic follow up to the Department of Health, Services Director at the City of Joburg Jabulile Rakhosa responded and said that the MMC had no final say on the matter of the clinic. This was further disturbing for the NPO.
Perfect Start Ministries planned a fun run to raise funds to build the Cosmo City Health and Wellness Centre, unfortunately the fun run was not a success. Perfect Start Ministries organised an official peaceful march requesting all Cosmo City residents to bring one brick to build the wellness centre, the turn-out was very low.
Feeling the frustration, Perfect Start Ministries approached the Public Protector to seek an audience. In a sitting held with the Public Protector, these were the outcomes:
• The department said it only had R200, 000 for the planning phase of building the clinic. That meant that the department didn’t have money to build the clinic,
• Perfect Start Ministries wanted to know the estimate cost of the clinic, which was not provided on the day,
• Perfect Start Ministries wanted proof of land that the department had secured and when the construction of the clinic would begin, that was not provided on the day,
The Public Protector Official sitting on the conciliation meeting said monitoring would be done quarterly from the date.
Impact of the Development:
• It is clear that Cosmo City needs a Health Facility for the residents.
• It is clear that the Provincial Department of Health has not yet secured the land for the facility.
• It is clear that the Provincial Department of Health currently has no budget for the facility.
• It is clear that Perfect Start Ministries does have the land where a health facility can be built.
• It is clear that the department and the NPO have not been able to work together to agree on the health facility.
• It is clear that the community remains without a health facility that it so much needed – an intervention is required.
Conclusion
Then Provincial Department of Health spokesperson Steve Mabona said that the department has been looking for land since 2004 and it was a priority for the department – I am failing to understand as to why the department is not working together with Perfect Start Ministries, if the health facility is such a priority – when you say something is a priority, what do you mean, how long does an issue become a priority?
The mobile facility currently in use is inadequate. The residents might one day stand up and want the facility – perhaps immediate intervention is needed.
The Provincial Department of Health has to answer why they had claimed they had found land and later they didn’t have the land, how did that happen?
The residents of Cosmo City were able to rise up when a backroom was demolished by the Red Ants because it had not been built according to a proper plan – why are they not standing up for a health facility?
The current health facility in Cosmo City, we can do better than this!
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