News / National
Joshua Nkomo turning in his grave
26 Nov 2018 at 06:38hrs | Views
Some of the wishes of the late vice president Joshua Nkomo are finding no takers as witnessed by the Ekusileni Medical Centre in Bulawayo which has been lying idle for the past 17 years.
Ekusileni Medical Centre has been lying idle since 2004 when it was forced to shut down by government after it was discovered that equipment worth millions of dollars acquired by the Zimbabwean Health Care Trust (ZHCT) was obsolete.
The upmarket 369-bed hospital facility was built with funding from the National Social Security Authority (NSSA). It is fast turning into a white elephant.
Many dates have been given for the re-opening of this state-of-the-art medical facility which is the brainchild of Dr Nkomo but there are no indications it will open soon. The late Vice President, who died in 1999, was not happy that the country did not have a health facility that provided specialist healthcare services despite the fact that it had the required specialists.
This is forcing Zimbabweans to seek such services outside the country and the costs in most cases are very prohibitive. The continued closure of Ekusileni is therefore a cause for concern. The failure by the Zimbabwe Health Care Trust (ZHCT) to re-open Ekusileni prompted Cabinet to resolve that the government should take over the institution.
The move is, however, being resisted by the trust which argues that the government is largely to blame for the delay in re-opening the hospital. The hospital's interim managing director, Rodney Dangarembizi said equipment and drugs worth more than $5 million meant for operationalisation of the hospital were stuck at the Harare International Airport awaiting a duty waiver since February this year.
The hospital has been declared a national project because of the specialist nature of its services hence its eligibility to benefit from government support such as duty waiver on equipment and drugs.
Several attempts to lure investors to operate the hospital have failed and it has over the years become one of those Bulawayo development projects the ruling party dangles at the electorate during elections.
There are conflicting ownership claims by several groups including Nssa, some medical doctors and the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo's family.
The Nkomo family had indicated that they own the land on which the medical facility was built.
Ekusileni Medical Centre has been lying idle since 2004 when it was forced to shut down by government after it was discovered that equipment worth millions of dollars acquired by the Zimbabwean Health Care Trust (ZHCT) was obsolete.
The upmarket 369-bed hospital facility was built with funding from the National Social Security Authority (NSSA). It is fast turning into a white elephant.
Many dates have been given for the re-opening of this state-of-the-art medical facility which is the brainchild of Dr Nkomo but there are no indications it will open soon. The late Vice President, who died in 1999, was not happy that the country did not have a health facility that provided specialist healthcare services despite the fact that it had the required specialists.
This is forcing Zimbabweans to seek such services outside the country and the costs in most cases are very prohibitive. The continued closure of Ekusileni is therefore a cause for concern. The failure by the Zimbabwe Health Care Trust (ZHCT) to re-open Ekusileni prompted Cabinet to resolve that the government should take over the institution.
The hospital has been declared a national project because of the specialist nature of its services hence its eligibility to benefit from government support such as duty waiver on equipment and drugs.
Several attempts to lure investors to operate the hospital have failed and it has over the years become one of those Bulawayo development projects the ruling party dangles at the electorate during elections.
There are conflicting ownership claims by several groups including Nssa, some medical doctors and the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo's family.
The Nkomo family had indicated that they own the land on which the medical facility was built.
Source - online
