The Mpumalanga Health Department is in disaster

Thabiso Nkuna

The people living in the province of Mpumalanga have taken the issue with the Mpumalanga health department. This occurs after the department has been in the news for all the wrong reasons on multiple occasions. A Hazyview hospital was forced to close for a few weeks after a group demanding tenders from the department treated the lives of the medical staff. This time, the Bushbuckridge local municipality’s Cunningmore A community is blaming the same department.

There are no community health workers (CHW) in the clinic, according to the residents of wards 24 and 35. They claim that community members have died needlessly as a result of the crucial workers of CHW not being available at their neighborhood clinic. Certain elderly and disabled individuals depend on CHW members to provide their drugs. Their lives are being strained by this. Because of various rural circumstances, community residents want CHW services.

The community claims that they have unsuccessfully knocked on every door in this province in an attempt to find a solution. MEC Sasekani Manzini has been contacted via email, but her P.A. has offered to step in. That was in May, and nothing has been done since. In an effort to save lives, the community is pleading with the Mpumalanga Department of Health to assign CHWs to their clinic. The village’s two ward council members are collaborating with the community to find a solution, but they are powerless to do so.