Melinda Kusemachibi
Ward 9 villagers from Zaka Central have raised concerns of neglect by council over the Mbuyamaswa clinic project as they feel the local authority has abandoned the health facility that they expected to have started offering services now.
The clinic whose construction started two years ago stalled prompting villagers to raise eyebrows alleging the project was likely to take ages to complete.
Construction works on the facility have been on hold since last year owing to Covid-19 lockdown and non-payment of wages to workers though works are reported to have resumed.
A villager, Eddison Chaibva said council is taking ages to finish constructing a clinic.
“Since last year the local authority has been saying the same thing over and over. We are tired of walking long distances to access health facilities. They should do something about this,” said Chaibva.
Another villager, Felix Mugadha said the local authority should do something about the completion of the clinic since people have to endure long distances to access health facilities
“It’s now close to two years since the construction started. In our village we have no access to health facilities, we walk a very long distance to the nearest clinic,” Mugadha said.
The project initiated by the community got funding from government through the Ministry of Health and Child Care and Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
Efforts to get a comment Zaka Rural District Council (RDC) Ward 9 Councilor Moses Mutandavari were fruitless by the time of publication as his mobile number went unanswered.
Zaka Central Member of Parliament Davison Svuure said villagers are not complaining about this.
“Villagers know where they report their issues, and they know where we are. We held a meeting on October 31, 2021 and I addressed them on the issue and gave them feedback about the clinic. The contractor will be in a position to give a feedback on when it will be complete,” said Svuure.
Zaka District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Mutero Mupereki told TellZim News that there is progress on Mbuyamaswa clinic.
“Construction of Mbuyamaswa Clinic is now through Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) a capital component of the National Budget releases from government of Zimbabwe through Ministry of Health. So far, we received PSIP release for roofing and the roofing is almost complete. We await another release that is expected soon, so there is progress,” said Dr Mupereki.
Prior to this new development, Mupereki last told TellZim that the Ministry of Health and Child Care could not provide new funding unless the Department of Public Works specified what was needed at every stage of construction.
“We do not work alone as a ministry. We work with government departments in other ministries, and in this case, we work with the Public Works department that knows what is needed. Our job is to procure what would have been recommended by the department,” said Dr Mupereki.
When the clinic was under construction, 500 bags of cement dried up due to what many feel to be a case of negligence and poor management.
The bags of cement kept in a bar at Mbuyamaswa business centre were bought using money allocated under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) disbursement programme in 2018.
However, Ward 8 Councilor Tererai Tererai indicated that Four Miles clinic (whose construction started at the same time with Mbuyamasva) is nearing completion.
“We are now done with roofing, we are plastering and we expect it to be complete by February 2022. We asked for assistance from well-wishers who stay in South Africa for money to buy tanks and they promised to give 10 000 litres tank and stand,” said Tererai.
Zaka district is one of the most underdeveloped districts in the province where many people still travel more than 10km to the nearest health facilities and schools.
Ward 13 Councilor Manfred Mada said Tovane clinic is also at roofing level, nearing completion.
“We are targeting to complete our clinic by March 2022, so villagers have to be patient with us. Soon it will be complete since it is now at roof level,” said Mada.
