Mpumalanga Premier Mandla Ndlovu said that poor maintenance could undermine investment in public healthcare facilities after opening the new Alexandria Clinic in Bushbuckridge on Wednesday.

Situated in the Ehlanzeni District Municipality, the clinic is expected to provide primary healthcare services to an estimated 21,506 residents of Alexandria and neighbouring communities.

Speaking to the media at the opening, Ndlovu warned that government buildings often deteriorated within a few years because insufficient attention was given to maintaining them.

“But if you come back after two years, three years, you will find that the clinic that you are going to offer to the people starts to deteriorate,” he said.

“Whether it’s a school, when you compare the school that is built by government and a private school, you will find that governments are building very good, beautiful schools. But we don’t take care of our own facilities.”

He urged officials responsible for maintaining the clinic to ensure that it remained in good condition.

“So I want to request that those that are dealing with maintenance, they must take care of this facility to take care of our people around here,” Ndlovu said.

The premier described the new facility as meeting the requirements of an Ideal Clinic, a national programme that assesses public healthcare facilities against standards covering infrastructure, staffing, equipment and service delivery.

“This clinic meets all the standards of an Ideal Clinic. There is no need for a person to go to a private institution if they are staying around here. They must utilise this clinic,” he said.

The clinic will offer maternal and child healthcare, vaccinations, management of chronic conditions, HIV and tuberculosis services, family planning, cervical cancer screening, diabetes and hypertension screening, health education and condom distribution.

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood collection is also among the services identified for the facility.

As part of the opening, the provincial government announced free health screenings and testing for hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and cancer.

Ndlovu said the government was also working to improve access to doctors at public clinics, with visiting doctors intended to provide services at facilities without permanent medical practitioners.

“What is good is that we have started even to deploy doctors to our clinics. Also, yes, if we don’t have a permanent doctor, they must know that we are going to have a visiting doctor in this clinic,” he said.

In his March 2026 State of the Province Address, Ndlovu reported that doctors had been permanently deployed to primary healthcare facilities across Mpumalanga as part of efforts to improve access to medical treatment.

He said the opening of Alexandria Clinic would also reduce the distances residents had previously travelled to obtain healthcare.

“I am very happy that the people of Alexandria finally have their own clinic. They are not going to walk for five kilometres. They are not going to walk for 19 kilometres. They are going to get services here,” he said.

The Alexandria Clinic project was among the provincial government’s planned healthcare developments announced in July 2024 and was still listed as an ongoing infrastructure project in March this year.

The provincial government has allocated R1.7 billion to health infrastructure in the current financial year, including R183 million for maintaining existing facilities, according to Ndlovu’s March address.

Two additional clinics are expected to open in the Steve Tshwete and Thembisile Hani local municipalities.

The developments form part of the province’s efforts to expand primary healthcare access and support South Africa’s National Health Insurance agenda.

However, the question of operating hours also arose during Wednesday’s opening, with Ndlovu addressing whether public clinics should provide round-the-clock healthcare.

“Yes, if it is my wish, we can have all our facilities operating 24 hours,” he said.

“I am asking myself the reason why we do not have a clinic that can operate 24 hours.”

He said that extending operating hours would increase staffing costs, particularly where overtime payments were required, and said the government needed to consider whether the expenditure was justified by patient demand.

“We must know that if we open 24-7, we are paying for the nurses overtime. We are paying for everyone overtime. We are spending more and sometimes to see one person,” he said.

INSIDE METROS

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