By Tendayi Madhomu
BULAWAYO – Ekusileni Hospital in Bulawayo which was scheduled to open its doors today will not be functional any time soon as a team from the Health and Child Care ministry is yet to be sent to India to verify the existence of the project investor, Shadar Group of Hospitals.
The chairperson of the taskforce running the medical centre, Nyasha Masuka yesterday told the Daily News that the team of officials responsible for the operations of the institution will only leave for India on January 6.
According to reports in the State media, the trip to India had been penned for mid-December 2018.
“The trip has not yet happened, it’s going to happen next week on January 6,” said Masuka.
The Ekusileni Hospital project is the brain child of the late vice president Joshua Nkomo and has been lying idle since its closure in 2004.
Media reports had indicated that the hospital was set to open its doors this January following the engagement of the Indian Investor, Shadar Group of Hospitals.
When he visited the idle facility in June 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa made a spirited commitment to open Ekusileni Medical Centre before year end, pledging that he was going to make sure nothing will stand in the way of his efforts to bring fruition to Umdala wethu’s vision.
The late gallant’s son Sibangilizwe Nkomo said the family is ready to re-offer itself and the proposed South African investor, Clinix Health Group, to make his father’s legacy a success.
He said the hospital has had enough false starts, including the false promise that it was going to open today.
“We are re-offering ourselves and our investors, whenever government is ready. Once they come back from India and having found out that Shadar is an educational facility and not a medical institution, we will start talking.
“Why do they want to waste money and fly all the way to India when an identified investor is available in neighbouring South Africa?” he said.
“Maybe they will reconsider us after making their trip to India.”
Early last month Nkomo disclosed that government had turned down the Clinix Health Group’s proposal, in favour of the Indian investor whose authenticity was yet to be verified.
In the latest economic blue-print, the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) the Finance ministry has indicated that the hospital would be opened in two phases to be rolled in 2019 and 2020. Daily News