Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
A clinic that was proposed 30 years ago in Pupu Ward 11 in Matabeleland North Province will soon be opened after it was built using devolution funds, thanks to the Second Republic’s vision of ensuring services reach every citizen.
Under President Mnangagwa’s leadership, Government is undertaking massive infrastructure development and social investment programmes aimed at transforming Zimbabwe into an upper middle-income society by 2030.
Pupu Clinic which is situated in Ward 11, Mazankila Village about 45km from Lupane Business Centre, will service 9 000 villagers.
It is near Pupu National Monument in Lupane, Matabeleland North, which is complete and is ready for commissioning.
The clinic will reduce the distance that villagers have to travel to seek medical attention as the nearest two clinics are in Gomoza and Lupaka, which are both 20km away.
St Luke’s Hospital is the referral medical facility which is about 70km away from Pupu.
A visit to the area on Tuesday by a Chronicle news crew, revealed that about 95 percent of work has been completed.
There are two wards for men and women, two shower rooms and toilets, a laboratory, a medicine dispensary, a delivery room and an office for the environmental technician.
What is left is tiling and electrical tubing among other cosmetic touches around the clinic.
Outside, there is a solar powered borehole, with two 5 000 litre water tanks that will service the clinic.
A pipeline has been completed that will bring water close to the community. The next new borehole is at Pupu Shrine about a kilometre away.
Ward 11 Councillor, Retired Major Simanga Sibanda said the project took 30 years to come to fruition.
This clinic was proposed in 1992 through the local authority, but the project took a long time for it to be implemented.
“When I took over as councillor in 2018, we started off the President’s 100-day cycle. We as the community united and worked together and we managed to make significant progress, with the material that we had. We completed it in 60 days,” said Cllr Sibanda.
He said the next phase of the project was to build staff houses and erect a perimeter fence.
“What we are looking at now is to build two staff houses for the nurses and this will start anytime from now. So that the nurses can work and attend to patients from a nearby place. Also, in the plans we want to build a mother’s waiting shelter (amadumbe) and a fence around the property,” said Cllr Sibanda.
Villagers were also observed using the borehole taps outside the clinic’s premises for their water needs.- @bonganinkunzi
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