Eastern Cape Health MEC, Nomakhosazana Meth, introduced a contractor that has been awarded R560 million to build the state-of-the-art Madwaleni Hospital that will be a National Health Insurance (NHI) facility in Elliotdale, on Thursday, May 16.
The sod-turning event for the hospital happened a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the NHI bill into law on Wednesday, May 15.
Addressing community members at the hospital to be upgraded, Meth said this was a response to the call by Ramaphosa for universal access to health.
“We want to ensure we have all the necessary services for the people of this area. This is a rural area far from services and we are a government that wants services to go to where the people are. That is why this hospital will look like hospitals in the most opulent areas in SA,” she said.
It was not the first time a state-of-the-art facility was built in the area, as there is a gateway clinic not far from the hospital.
Meth said businesses closer to the development, including SMMEs, will also benefit from the project at a minimum of 30 percent, as dictated by the government.
“The project will take four years, because it is a very big and important project to the people of Mbhashe Local Municipality. This is one of the ways to ensure that people from deep rural areas of our province get quality healthcare services. We are a government that ensures inclusivity, fairness, and equality in access to healthcare services,” said Meth.
Lungile Toyiya, a resident from Madwaleni, said he was elated by the rebuilding of the hospital, as the current building was not enough to service the people.
“We are happy that the current government has decided to upgrade the hospital buildings. This will help treat more people, and even be able to admit those in need. We are also hoping that there will be staff increases so that they can cope with the numbers. Residents were also upbeat about the jobs that would be created for the village and its surrounding villages during the four year period of the construction.
“This project value is R560 million and that’s including VAT. It’s a 48-month project so it spans over a period of four years,” said GVK Siya Zama Eastern Cape Managing Director Peet Meyer.
“We estimate at this stage that there will be about a 1 000 jobs created on this project. We estimate there will probably be 50 to 60 SMMEs involved in the project; the total value of the SMME spend is just under R100 million.”
He said their aim was four-fold, including creating a facility, employing local labour as far as possible through their participation in the project, developing their skills, and developing the SMMEs.
He said there was a mentoring scheme in the project specifically aimed at mentoring the SMMEs and upgrading them.
“For us it is an honour being involved in such a project, specially seeing that it will influence generations to come and not just this current generation,” Meyer said.
