Harben Park Pfende Satellite Clinic finally opened
By Delicious Mathuthu
The long awaited Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Harben Park Pfende Satellite Clinic official opening was finally done on Wednesday (17/05/23), about nine months after renovation completion.
The clinic, which was transformed from a community club house, comes as relief for Gweru urban ward 2 residents who had to travel several kilometers seeking medical attention.
The clinic will serve roughly over 12 000 residents from Harben Park and surrounding areas.
Speaking at the launch, Guest of Honour and Gweru Urban Member of Parliament, Hon. Brian Dube, said the clinic is one of the two projects requested by ward 2 residents and for the other, funds did not permit.
He said the purpose of the project is to improve lives of local residents who had to travel long distances for healthcare.
“This place has no commuter omnibuses and transport is a problem which is one of the reasons why we came up with the project.
“The other was for a satellite school but funds did not permit, hope we will do the project one day.
“We continue to champion the cause of the people and as Gweru Urban CDF we want Gweru people to have tangible projects not just promises,” Hon. Brian Dube said.
He however bemoaned the lackadaisical attitude by council and central government on developmental projects, as it is costly.
“We need rapid and quick responses for development from our government stakeholders and from our councils.
“It should not take too long as it happened here.
“I remember we had other people who wanted to partner so that we do bigger things but we lost them because the time that we spent just to get a plan from council took too long.
“CDF monies are not enough, it’s little and it’s in RTGS which is eroded by inflation; so you will be asking from other people to say assist us.
“Some of them end up giving up. Six months asking for a plan and having them (Council) saying we have challenges, we are still waiting for this and that.
“We hope going forward, these things should be improved and we should be able to do our things on time.
“We need our planning systems to be efficient so that we do not lose our partners,” Hon. Dube said.
He said some of the materials bought for the project were stolen and the local authority took long to deploy security, which increased costs towards the project.
“We also need to be responsive when things are done, I remember we bought material and put it here, some of it was stolen because council took time to just allocate guards.
“We had a whole week and some of the things, including chambers, were stolen and we had to buy them again simply because council approved a project but could not deploy guards,” he said.
Hon. Dube said ward 2 community youths had to volunteer to guard the materials for about a week before officially getting a council guard.
After renovations by CDF were complete, he said the official opening of the clinic was also delayed and residents continued to suffer.
“This thing as you know was complete way back, including the borehole, but we have taken I think over nine months to just officially handover this place so that the people of ward 2 can utilise their facility.
“For various reasons and theories that I am not bothered to explain to you, but what I would just want to say is, we must grow up and make sure that we prioritise those things that affect people.
“We need to be responsive to people’s needs so that we do things on time.
“We had people who continued going to Whawha and travelling to town which was unnecessary, for 9 months, when this place was already ready for use,” said Hon. Brian Dube.
He challenged other leaders that will come into council and parliament to be more efficient in making resolutions and decisions for such projects, saying they should be quick and responsive.
He also applauded Council’s co-operation, especially the Health Services department led by Samson Sekenhamo.
“I want to thank you, City of Gweru also, for being co-operative especially, I will repeat again, the Director of Health.
“Keep it up, continue to champion the cause of the people; I salute you, I know the pressures that you were going through so that the project is a success.
“Don’t mind much about what people say because we have some people who can’t appreciate.
“Continue to do what is right, continue to champion the good cause,” he said.
In a separate interview with Kwedu News, Gweru City Council Health Services Director Sekenhamo said the delays to the opening of the Pfende Clinic were due to health licensing requirements, inspections and procedures for such new facilities that are needed to ensure that minimum standards are met from bodies like the Medical Control Authority of Zimbabwe.
Speaking to Kwedu News, one of the local residents, Mary Madzokere, said they are relieved the area now has a medical facility.
“This place started as a club house and today we are very happy with the work which was done here.
“When we had emergencies at night we were hiring cars to go to General (Hospital in town) and when you go there, you could spend the whole night there.
“If not General we would travel to Whawha.
“So we are thankful for what has been done for the area, we have been assisted as residents and our grandchildren because they now have a place to get that little medical assistance,” Madzokere said.
Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association Executive Director, Cornilia Selipiwe said it was expensive to travel to town for medical attention and the clinic will assist many.
“In rural areas people are finding it difficult having a clinic 5 kilometers away and they are trying to reduce that distance.
“So from Pfende you had to fork out a dollar for transport before you even start getting treatment.
“So having a clinic here helps us as residents.
“So we thank Honourable Dube that he has done good for us, and also thank our local authority which gave him permission so that we have such a development,” Selipiwe said.
