Picture: One of community members raising his views during public participation at the North West Provincial Legislature/Facebook

By OBAKENG MAJE

The community members raised various service delivery challenges ranging from scholar transport challenges, lack of sports facilities in schools and communities, high teenage pregnancy and drug abuse in schools.

One of the community members, Tshegofatso Molome said, patients, are suffering because health centres are not operating at night and during the weekend. Molome said lack of social workers in schools and a shortage of health professionals and medicine in health centres.

“People cannot be sick only during the day and the week, but our clinics are turning away sick patients at night and at weekends. There is also a shortage of ambulances, especially in villages where road conditions are also bad and damage those vehicles as well.

“We health facilities that are not operating 24 hours and 7 days a week, shortage of medication and personnel, social workers that are not deployed in schools to deal with social challenges of learners, the dilapidated infrastructure of schools, health facilities and arts, culture and sports facilities and shortage of classrooms and teachers,” she said.

Another community member, Kedibone Matlhomola shared the same sentiments. Matlhomola said they were informed that, the classrooms in rural communities and some townships are overcrowded and that the learner dropout rate is very high due to drug abuse and teenage pregnancy.

“Although the department is providing mobile classrooms, there is no plan to maintain them when damaged. Some learners who come from child-headed families are also struggling to attend school due to social problems in their families hence they end up dropping out of school,” she said.

These challenges were raised during the North West Provincial Legislature (NWPL) public participation programme in Mahikeng, where Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) engage with community members to hear their concerns on various service delivery issues and discuss possible solutions as well as allow Members of the Executive Council (MECs) from various provincial departments to respond to such issues.

The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health and Social Development, Gavin Edwards informed the attendees that, during the recent oversight programme of the legislature in Ngaka Modiri Molema District, the committee witnessed various challenges such as dilapidated health centres without personnel and medication, poor records management in health facilities which results on patients files being misplaced, and victim empowerment centres that are not fully funded and supported with resources.

“There are instances, where patients in clinics or hospitals have more than one file, and instances where operations theatres and other facilities in hospitals are not working.

“Often medical doctors and nurses knock off at 4pm thus leaving patients stranded and unattended without receiving any medical attention,” said Edwards.

The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education, Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation, Paul Sebego said: “Schools that were built by communities before 1994 need serious renovations as the infrastructure is dilapidated and not conducive for teaching and learning.

“Another concerning issue is the scholar transport, where buses used to transport learners are not roadworthy as we have seen in recent times when traffic authorities have impounded them. Education department must engage the Transport Management department to ensure that learners are transported on roadworthy vehicles.”

Sebegoe added that the North West Department of Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation (ACSR) should also address challenges of libraries and sports facilities that are not maintained regularly.

Meanwhile, the North West MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha said his department plans to renovate 44 clinics each financial year and upgrade 10 clinics to 24-hour/7 days a week operations.

“We are also planning to build a state-of-the-art hospital that will cater for Tswaing and Ratlou Local Municipalities. We have budgeted R170 million to upgrade Motswedi clinic to a Community Healthcare Centre (CHC) and have changed the method of procuring ambulances to accommodate the growing population,” he said.

North West MEC for Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation, Keneetswe Mosenogi said the department has agreed with municipalities to provide maintenance support to libraries and install internet.

“As municipalities are not paying librarians the same as the ones from the department, we plan to incorporate them into the department so that, they can be on the same salary scale.

“We will ensure that municipalities utilise their 15% of Municipal Infrastructure Grant to maintain sports facilities and will work with sports federations to address their issues,” she said.

The North West MEC for Social Development, Boitumelo Moiloa said: “Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) are funded based on services rendered and are financially supported yearly with 2 trench payments.

“We are trying to support the NPOs and other organisations with necessary resources. The department will resolve the issue of transport for social workers in Ratlou and other affected areas,” she said.

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