21 June 2023
Hundreds of people marched to the Gugulethu Community Health Centre in Cape Town on Wednesday demanding better health services. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana
Hundreds of people marched to the Gugulethu Community Health Centre in Cape Town on Wednesday to complain about service at the clinic.
The march started at the offices of the Movement for Change and Social Justice. Flanked by members of neighbourhood watches wearing reflective jackets, marchers sang, danced and waved placards and banners on which was written “Fix the public hospital” and “We are too poor to be treated”.
Marchers came from civic organistions including #UniteBehind and the People’s Health Movement, from Gugulethu, Nyanga and Khayelitsha.
The march comes a week after a robbery at the clinic. According to the provincial health department, in the early hours of Tuesday 13 June, two people gained access to the clinic pretending to be patients seeking health care. One was in a wheelchair and the other was pushing him. As soon as security guards opened the gate, the two pulled out their guns and held up the guards. Two more robbers then entered the premises. The four robbed the security guards.
Speaking to the protesters in the street outside the clinic, march leader Reverend Zama Mfihlo said: “We cannot keep ignoring what is happening here.”
“Just last week there was a robbery here. Now how are we supposed to feel safe?”
He said patients complained they were not well treated by staff at the clinic. “We do not have medical aids, we know, but at least treat us with care. There are suggestion boxes in this clinic, but the question is, who reads what we put inside those boxes? Because nothing is changing,” said Mfihlo.
Wheelchair user Thozi Mciki, who was part of the march, said he hoped the protest would prompt the health department to take note of complaints. “The two main issues I have with this clinic are the long waiting times and folders getting lost. It is so frustrating to come here early in the morning only to leave in the late afternoon because there is not enough staff,” said Mciki.
Noluthando Mazwi, a member of the Gugulethu Health Forum who gets her chronic medication from the clinic, said her main issues were long waiting times, poor service and leaks in the ceiling when it rains.
“When the weather is like this and it’s raining you find the floor at the outpatient department completely wet, and then people are stopped from entering.”
“This clinic needs to be taken away and a proper hospital needs to be built like they have in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain,” said Mazwi.
Director of #UniteBehind Zackie Achmat addressed the crowd. “I saw the video of the robbery and I want to say sorry to those security guards,” he said.
“We need to work together. I see the elderly sitting here. Elderly people have enormous power. Many of you have a whole lot of illnesses, so we must ensure that our hospitals are better, not only for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren as well,” said Achmat.
In a memorandum, the Movement for Change and Social Justice demanded a new hospital, to be constructed between 2024 and 2026; a larger trauma unit; better infrastructure; a focus on staff and bed shortages; wheelchair-friendly facilities; and safer parking spaces.
The memorandum was accepted by Patti Olckers, district director for health in the provincial government, who promised that feedback would be given within 14 days.