Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsolaedi on Friday praised the development of the newly launched Shandukani Maternal and Child Health Centre in Hillbrow, which focuses on antenatal, post-natal and mother and childcare services.

The centre, developed through a R28-million fund by cellular provider Vodacom, telecommunications provider Altech and information technology company Altron, was developed through expert support by the University of the Witwatersrand.

The centre provides free-of-charge, high-quality health services to mothers and their children in the impoverished and densely populated Hillbrow district of Johannesburg.

More than 30 babies a day have been born under the facility’s roof since the end of June 2012.

However, Motsoaledi lamented the fact that South Africa is the only country not at war where the mother and child mortality rate is increasing, quoting national liberation icon Nelson Mandela’s wife Graça Machel, who is herself a women’s and children’s health activist.

“Mother and child mortality is growing out of control. This is not in keeping with the level of development in South Africa and there is an urgent need to reduce mother and child mortality,” he said.

He noted, however, that the Shandukani Centre, which was developed using high-technology systems underlined by the concept of comprehensive and integrated health services, has consulting rooms, delivery rooms, a pharmacy and, on the top level, incorporates a research department researching pharmaceuticals dosage regimens for infants and adolescents. Services are aimed specifically at providing expert and comprehensive services to vulnerable mothers and children.

For example, the services include family planning services, which Motsoaledi highlighted as critical to achieve South Africa’s millennium development goals (MDGs) as agreed to under the United Nations.

Family planning can help to reduce mother and child mortality owing to fewer unwanted pregnancies and risky abortions, better advice to prospective families and reducing poverty by creating supportive familial structures.

“We cannot reduce the number of abortions and mother and child mortality without family planning, and without it we will likely find our MDGs, specifically [goals] 4 and 5, difficult to achieve.

“Family planning reduces poverty. It is critical for development, and it is necessary and similar to vaccinations [that prevent future illness].”

“We [the national Department of Health] may copy the success here at the Shandukani Centre and replicate it over the whole country,” he concluded.