By Anita Dangazele
Almost a year since Scrolla.Africa visited the NU11 clinic in Motherwell, Gqeberha, conditions there have not improved.
From young to old, patients wake up in the wee hours of the morning, daring the freezing early morning temperatures and risking becoming victims of crime, to be first in the queue to get their chronic medication.
The clinic opens at 7:30 am, and only 100 people are seen daily, forcing patients to take these crazy measures to get medical attention.
The tiny NU11 facility serves thousands of patients from more than five areas in Gqeberha’s largest township — NU10, NU11, NU12A, B and C, including NU29 and NU30.
The expansion of informal settlements in NU29 has worsened the problem, which happened after the municipality relocated residents from various wetlands across the city.
Ward 54 community leader Siphiwo Dayimani said NU29 now has over 1,000 shack dwellers, in addition to families living in RDP houses.
“We are talking about thousands of people in this ward who are solely dependent on one clinic. They are turned back home daily because the mobile clinic is also not coping with these numbers,” he said.
Patient Mthetheleli Maneli said they light a fire to keep them warm until the clinic opens.
“We use whatever we can find from the nearest dump to start a fire, because it’s very cold in the early hours of the morning, so that’s how we keep warm,” he told Scrolla.Africa.
But not all is gloom and doom. Some have turned their plight into a business opportunity.
Mninikhaya Tive and Melumzi Mankayi wake up early every day to queue for those who live far away for a fee of R30.
Tive said he has been doing this for the last three years.
“This is how I put bread on the table; jobs are scarce here. I saw an opportunity and I took it,” he said.
Mankayi, who lives across the road from the clinic, said this idea came to him while he was sitting outside in the sun watching patients get turned away.
“I am unemployed and so I would sit in the sun and watch them get turned away. I decided to make arrangements with them for a few rands. That is how I began,” he said.
Provincial health department spokesperson, Yonela Dekeda, previously told Scrolla.Africa that the department had set aside R700 million to fill vacancies in the province and that the NU11 clinic was set to benefit from this.
Dekeda said the department has since appointed three additional staff members to ease the situation at the NU11 clinic.
However, she added the department had no intention of building a second clinic in NU29 as the area is served by a mobile clinic twice a week.
“The department is not aware that the facility turns patients away. This matter will be investigated,” she said.
Pictured above: The long queue at the NU11 clinic stretches to the end of the street
Image source: Anita Dangazele
