It was truly an auspicious occasion yesterday, 20 February 2020, in Ebony Park. The community was graced by the presence of the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg ,Geoff Makhubo; MEC for Health in Gauteng, Dr Bandile Masuku and CoJ Health MMC, Eunice Mgcina.
The occasion was for the Ebony Park-Kaalfontein Community Health Care Centre official opening. The clinic is the first 24 hour clinic in the City of Johannesburg and it took 547 days for the clinic to be officially opened.
Politics are largely responsible. The state of the R45 million art clinic is a hybrid facility. This means that it is run by both the provincial and local government.
The clinic is a CoJ Municipality property. Municipalities are constitutionally bound to offer primary health care services and Provinces are bound to offer 24 hours services such as Accidents and Materninity services. The Primary Health care services are offered from 07:00 -19:00, Monday’s to Fridays and 07:00 to 13:00 on Saturdays.
Previously the Ebony Park Clinic was a small facility consisting of less than six consulting rooms. The number of patients consulting was on the rise whilst the capacity to accommodate the numbers was limited thus became difficult to provide an all-inclusive Primary Health Care to the community of Ebony Park and Kaalfontein.
In July 2015, Ebony Park Clinic had the second largest number of patients served in Region A, reflecting 68 146. Due to increasing health care needs a decision was taken to rationalize and convert the Ebony Park Clinic into a Ebony Park-Kaalfontein Community Health Care Centre operating 24 hours a day.
The construction of the facility commenced when the budget provision was made during the 2015/2016 – 2018/2019 fiscal years for the project. During that period, the Democratic Alliance (DA) coalition government was governing the City after Johannesburg residents voted the African National Congress (ANC) out of power in the 2016 Local Government Elections.
It was the former Mayor Herman Mashaba’s administration that revamped the health care facility. However, the administration was hamstrung by politics to open and make it a 24 hour facility. The old facility was closed on the 18th of April 2018 and by the 22nd of August 2018 construction was complete. It took Mashaba’s resignation from the DA last year for the clinic to finally open it’s doors to the public. The clinic began operating on the 28th of January 2020.
Conveniently for the ANC. The Regional Chairperson of the ANC is now the City’s Executive Mayor and Local Government Elections will be held next year.
The DA’s former MMC of Health, Clr Mpho Phalatse called the clinic opening event unsurprisingly politicized by the ANC and claimed that the ANC was peddling misinformation. “It is under the DA led government that the construction of the 24 hour clinic began and completed. As the former MMC of Health and Social Development in the City of Johannesburg, I am proud to see that our efforts of our DA-led administration continue to bear positive results.” Phalatse said in a statement.
