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Minister Prisca Mupfumira

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
EKUSILENI Medical Centre is scheduled to reopen in about four months following the engagement of a South African company to re-equip and run the health institution.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira yesterday said the government had already identified the company, which is expected to open the hospital’s doors to the public by mid-year.

“We’re in the process of finalising the strategies leading to the reopening of Ekusileni Medical Centre. I’m glad that we’ve already identified a South African company that will re-equip and run it,” said Mupfimira, who’s on a nationwide familiarisation tour of the social security services in the country.

She could not be drawn into revealing the name of the South African company, saying it was too early to do so.

“I can’t give all the details now but we’re hopeful that by mid-year, we would have finalised all the agreements and the medical centre would be operational,” said Mupfumira.

“We’re putting all the pressure we can to make sure that this beautiful facility is put to use. It’s important for us to revive this hospital. This will make sure that the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo’s dream comes true.”

She added that efforts to reopen the medical centre had been hitting a brick wall for the past 10 years due to various challenges.

Last week, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care recommended that the government should reopen the hospital by March, saying the facility was slowly crumbling.

The chairperson of the committee, Dr Ruth Labode, told Parliament that Ekusileni Medical Centre was falling apart without being used yet pensioners’ monies were used to construct the hospital.

“The Minister of Health and Child Care Dr David Parirenyatwa must use powers vested in his office to ensure that Ekusileni Medical Centre opens by March this year,” said the committee.

Ekusileni, which was constructed using NSSA funds, is the brainchild of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo and has been lying idle since 2004 after it was shut down.

The institution will have 23 departments and 157 beds, with the potential to increase its capacity to 265 beds. The hospital is also set to absorb scores of nurses and doctors who graduated from Mpilo Central Hospital, United Bulawayo Hospitals and the National University of Science and Technology, Nust’s medical school.