Khanyayo resident Happiness Tshezi said the community was delighted with this initiative.

“Previously, there were no spare rooms for critical patients who were on a drip while waiting for an ambulance to be transferred to the hospital. All patients [men, women and children] were treated in the same consulting room with no privacy.  Now we are happy that our plea for additional consulting rooms has been heard,” said Happiness.

Mbizana Local Municipality partnered with Conlog, an electronic design company that installs electricity meters in the area, to assist the community.  Ward councillor, Lusapho Mcambalala, said it was good to see private companies working together with local government to improve lives of rural people

“The government had been calling private companies to forge partnerships for the betterment of the lives of people, especially in rural areas,” said Mcambalala.

Helping hand

“It is such an honour to see these companies listening to the public and offer a helping hand.  People from more than 15 villages in Mbizana depend on the services provided by Kwa Khanyayo clinic.”

He said the improvement of the country’s health care required interventions from all spheres of government, the private sector and the community.

Zama Xulu of Conlog said the company had spent more than R200,000 for this improvement

“It’s part of our social responsibility plan to work with the local government within the areas we are servicing. The municipality has a box where community members deposit their letters about how they wish their community to be improved.  Most letters were from the people requesting that we assist Kwa Khanyayo clinic, and so we acted according to the needs of the people,” Xulu said.

An edited version of this story was published by The Citizen.