Date: 27/11/2005
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Imbizo & Healthy Lifestyles Celebration
Speech by the Minister of Health, M Tshabalala-Msimang at the Imbizo & Healthy Lifestyles Celebration, Kungwini, Bronkhorstspruit in Mpumalanga Province
Programme Director
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to greet you all this morning. I also feel honoured to be here today to conduct the Imbizo and to celebrate the Healthy Lifestyles with the Kungwini community. An active and healthy nation is the key to a better life. South Africans are still living in conditions that expose them to diseases. Most of our communities are still struggling to access safe, clean water and proper sanitation, housing, electricity, etc.
Programme Director, it will not be wise of me if I do not share with this Imbizo an important campaign we have embarked on from Friday, the 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children. In this campaign, the government, its partners and community at large will be conducting activities throughout the country as an effort to end gender-based violence. I was in Polokwane to launch this campaign in partnership with men who are committed to join the struggle to stop the violence against women and children. I would like to call upon all of you to join the campaign and protect our wonderful women and innocent children.
The Department of Health has been going all over the country promoting healthy lifestyles to our communities. Our main aim is to raise awareness about lifestyle chronic diseases which cause disabilities and premature deaths among communities, and today we have incorporated the Healthy Lifestyles activities in this Imbizo. We are conducting the health screening on site and I invite each one of you here, to take this opportunity and get a free health screening.
Adopting healthy lifestyles means to achieve better health gains and quality of life. Therefore, again I encourage all of you to practice behaviours that enhance health, like engaging in regular physical activity or health walks as we have done this morning. Let us all try to eat a healthy diet, avoid smoking and practice safe sex.
These days, many people live fast lives and therefore, they end up consuming fast foods like fried foods and fizzy drinks. This lifestyle will put you at risk of acquiring heart disease, diabetes and hypertension which is very harmful to your lives. Again, this morning I have donated garden implements to some of the food garden projects here in this area to emphasise the importance of growing your own food gardens.
As part of my constituency work in Mpumalanga province to monitor and accelerate service delivery, I requested a meeting in July 2005 with senior officials and councillors from both Motsweding and Kungwini municipalities, to understand the challenges facing the two municipalities and community. During the meeting, which was attended by various community groups including Branch Chairpersons and Secretaries of the ANC, Cosatu, SACP and Kungwini Residence Association, we deliberated on many issues affecting the community. One of the main concerns raised in all the meetings that I attended in the area was the cross-border issue.
The claims were that cross-border issues have had negative effects in the functioning of the ANC structures in the area and had also hampered service delivery, especially in the farming communities outside Bronkhorstspruit. The main thing was to encourage comrades to remain focused on the issue that matters most, the delivery of government services to our people. This indeed requires that we find amicable solutions to the problems that hamper service delivery.
We conducted visits to assess service delivery around Motsweding District including Ekangala township, Rethabiseng township, Three-Beeches and Kwa-Lapa farming communities.
We had a meeting with the community of Three–Beeches, who listed an array of health-related issues, which included lack of safe water, mobile clinics, poor sanitation as well as poor of road infrastructure and transport service. The community shared water sources with livestock.
At this meeting, the frustrated residents indicated that they had reported their concerns about poor service delivery to the councillor in charge of the area, who happens to be a DA councillor. Instead of addressing the community concerns, he allegedly told them to go to Mandela.
Kwa-Lapa farming community alleged that they were being terrorised by farm owners. It was alleged that a farmer had used a tractor to demolish one of the houses belonging to a farm worker. I requested ANC MP, Mr JB Sibanyoni to assist the family to open a criminal case against the farmer. A case of malicious damage to property is being investigated.
We instructed City Environmental Officers and Health promoters of the Mpumalanga Health District office to provide bleach for water purification, water tanks and health education to the affected communities.
Water samples were also collected from the faecal contaminated water sources along Rietfontein river and other water streams in the farming area, and sent for analysis.
Samples were found to have a number of bacteria associated with diarrhoeal and other water-borne diseases, implying that the water was not fit for human consumption.
I then instructed city environmental officers to investigate the possibility of re-opening the boreholes in the farms, which were closed during change of ownerships. I am still awaiting a report from the City Environmental Office of the Mpumalanga Health District on this issue.
The problems in the area also included people with disabilities who have no wheelchairs. This is why today I have organised 100 wheelchairs to be given to those who submitted their names to their councillors requesting wheelchairs. One of the people to receive a wheelchair today is a three year old child I found at Three-Beeches farming community during my visit, who was left by her mother after birth in the care of her grandmother.
The Department of Health also addressed the challenge of a lack of proper sanitation and the absence of mobile clinics in remote areas, as well as shortage of staff and poor service reported at Kangala Clinic. The MEC for Health in Mpumalanga has committed himself to addressing some of the issues. These include procurement of medical stock, repairing the Kangala clinic, deploying dentists to the area, providing a mobile clinic to the farming community and advertising posts for additional health staff.
A sanitation project will soon be launched and local residents will be employed to assist in this regard. The Executive Mayor Mabona will spearhead the project. While we have made a number of interventions to address the challenges facing the communities of this local municipality, the problems in the area require a coordinated effort by different government departments.
Programme director, may I take this opportunity to thank all of you for participating in this Imbizo and the Healthy Lifestyles Awareness day, and hope the community of Kungwini Municipality will benefit from the deliberation and activities we’ve had today.
In particular, I want to express my sincere thanks to all my colleagues who join me in this endeavour, our partners and task teams that made this day a success.
Thank you all.
Issued by: Department of Health
27 November 2005
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Imbizo & Healthy Lifestyles Celebration
Speech by the Minister of Health, M Tshabalala-Msimang at the Imbizo & Healthy Lifestyles Celebration, Kungwini, Bronkhorstspruit in Mpumalanga Province
Programme Director
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to greet you all this morning. I also feel honoured to be here today to conduct the Imbizo and to celebrate the Healthy Lifestyles with the Kungwini community. An active and healthy nation is the key to a better life. South Africans are still living in conditions that expose them to diseases. Most of our communities are still struggling to access safe, clean water and proper sanitation, housing, electricity, etc.
Programme Director, it will not be wise of me if I do not share with this Imbizo an important campaign we have embarked on from Friday, the 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children. In this campaign, the government, its partners and community at large will be conducting activities throughout the country as an effort to end gender-based violence. I was in Polokwane to launch this campaign in partnership with men who are committed to join the struggle to stop the violence against women and children. I would like to call upon all of you to join the campaign and protect our wonderful women and innocent children.
The Department of Health has been going all over the country promoting healthy lifestyles to our communities. Our main aim is to raise awareness about lifestyle chronic diseases which cause disabilities and premature deaths among communities, and today we have incorporated the Healthy Lifestyles activities in this Imbizo. We are conducting the health screening on site and I invite each one of you here, to take this opportunity and get a free health screening.
Adopting healthy lifestyles means to achieve better health gains and quality of life. Therefore, again I encourage all of you to practice behaviours that enhance health, like engaging in regular physical activity or health walks as we have done this morning. Let us all try to eat a healthy diet, avoid smoking and practice safe sex.
These days, many people live fast lives and therefore, they end up consuming fast foods like fried foods and fizzy drinks. This lifestyle will put you at risk of acquiring heart disease, diabetes and hypertension which is very harmful to your lives. Again, this morning I have donated garden implements to some of the food garden projects here in this area to emphasise the importance of growing your own food gardens.
As part of my constituency work in Mpumalanga province to monitor and accelerate service delivery, I requested a meeting in July 2005 with senior officials and councillors from both Motsweding and Kungwini municipalities, to understand the challenges facing the two municipalities and community. During the meeting, which was attended by various community groups including Branch Chairpersons and Secretaries of the ANC, Cosatu, SACP and Kungwini Residence Association, we deliberated on many issues affecting the community. One of the main concerns raised in all the meetings that I attended in the area was the cross-border issue.
The claims were that cross-border issues have had negative effects in the functioning of the ANC structures in the area and had also hampered service delivery, especially in the farming communities outside Bronkhorstspruit. The main thing was to encourage comrades to remain focused on the issue that matters most, the delivery of government services to our people. This indeed requires that we find amicable solutions to the problems that hamper service delivery.
We conducted visits to assess service delivery around Motsweding District including Ekangala township, Rethabiseng township, Three-Beeches and Kwa-Lapa farming communities.
We had a meeting with the community of Three–Beeches, who listed an array of health-related issues, which included lack of safe water, mobile clinics, poor sanitation as well as poor of road infrastructure and transport service. The community shared water sources with livestock.
At this meeting, the frustrated residents indicated that they had reported their concerns about poor service delivery to the councillor in charge of the area, who happens to be a DA councillor. Instead of addressing the community concerns, he allegedly told them to go to Mandela.
Kwa-Lapa farming community alleged that they were being terrorised by farm owners. It was alleged that a farmer had used a tractor to demolish one of the houses belonging to a farm worker. I requested ANC MP, Mr JB Sibanyoni to assist the family to open a criminal case against the farmer. A case of malicious damage to property is being investigated.
We instructed City Environmental Officers and Health promoters of the Mpumalanga Health District office to provide bleach for water purification, water tanks and health education to the affected communities.
Water samples were also collected from the faecal contaminated water sources along Rietfontein river and other water streams in the farming area, and sent for analysis.
Samples were found to have a number of bacteria associated with diarrhoeal and other water-borne diseases, implying that the water was not fit for human consumption.
I then instructed city environmental officers to investigate the possibility of re-opening the boreholes in the farms, which were closed during change of ownerships. I am still awaiting a report from the City Environmental Office of the Mpumalanga Health District on this issue.
The problems in the area also included people with disabilities who have no wheelchairs. This is why today I have organised 100 wheelchairs to be given to those who submitted their names to their councillors requesting wheelchairs. One of the people to receive a wheelchair today is a three year old child I found at Three-Beeches farming community during my visit, who was left by her mother after birth in the care of her grandmother.
The Department of Health also addressed the challenge of a lack of proper sanitation and the absence of mobile clinics in remote areas, as well as shortage of staff and poor service reported at Kangala Clinic. The MEC for Health in Mpumalanga has committed himself to addressing some of the issues. These include procurement of medical stock, repairing the Kangala clinic, deploying dentists to the area, providing a mobile clinic to the farming community and advertising posts for additional health staff.
A sanitation project will soon be launched and local residents will be employed to assist in this regard. The Executive Mayor Mabona will spearhead the project. While we have made a number of interventions to address the challenges facing the communities of this local municipality, the problems in the area require a coordinated effort by different government departments.
Programme director, may I take this opportunity to thank all of you for participating in this Imbizo and the Healthy Lifestyles Awareness day, and hope the community of Kungwini Municipality will benefit from the deliberation and activities we’ve had today.
In particular, I want to express my sincere thanks to all my colleagues who join me in this endeavour, our partners and task teams that made this day a success.
Thank you all.
Issued by: Department of Health
27 November 2005
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