MORE than $500 000 has been raised for the construction of
Ezimnyama community clinic, 66 years after the project was mooted, but could
not be completed due to successive generational bickering among the community
members.
The clinic’s groundbreaking ceremony was done in 1953, when
the farming community decided to build a health facility in Ezimnyama
small-scale farming area.
However, efforts to complete the structure took long
because there was no consensus among the villagers. So far, the project has
spent 20 years on the slab level.
However, the Mangwe Rural District Council (MRDC) has
revived efforts to complete the clinic which will serve villagers in wards 12
and 22.
Politically, the wards are in Bulilima West constituency
and administratively they fall under Mangwe district by virtue of their
positioning.
On Saturday, over $500 000 was raised at a fundraising
ceremony held at the clinic site which will likely see the completion of the
health institution more than six decades later. Mangwe RDC donated most of the
funds for the project after devoting all its $510 000 devolution allocation to
the clinic project.
Legislator Dingumuzi Phuthi, who was the guest of honour
also allocated $20 000 from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Mangwe RDC chief executive Bongani Ngwenya said devolution
would bring development to rural areas, but urged people to work hard to
compliment government efforts.
“Devolution is a government policy which is being
implemented so that each and every area gets an equal share of development. As
MRDC, we sat down and decided to put all our $510 000 devolution allocation to
the project. As communities, let’s support so that these government programmes
succeed because they are for our benefit,” Ngwenya said.
Phuthi urged kraalheads to help organise the community to
work on the project and stop bickering.
“We should work together as one people because this clinic
will serve all people of this constituency regardless of one’s political
affiliation. Let’s work for our development because we are the people who
belong here,” Phuthi said.
His sentiments were echoed by the newly-elected Mangwe
legislator Hlalani Mguni, who replaced her late husband Obedingwa Madlala
Mguni, who died in June.
“We should be happy to work together as one. My late
husband was born in this ward and it would be a befitting gesture for this
clinic to be completed. It was something which was at his heart.
I will help to make sure it is completed,” Mguni said. Several
businesspeople donated cash and building materials for the clinic. Newsday
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