About Hlekweni : Clinic

Efforts to establish a clinic had been made from 1978. The buildings you see were built by Hlekweni in 1992 with funds from the European Union, but are not yet in operation.

Despite efforts by Hlekweni staff and board to bring together key players in the Ministry of Health and the Rural District Council (RDC), no serious indications of intent to open the clinic were made until 2004. Young Friends from South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and the UK gave it a lick of paint as part of their workcamp at Hlekweni in December 2003. The Ministry has committed to opening but is delayed by the RDC, which is failing to deliver relatively small quantities of sand and cement.

Hlekweni suffers from being on the border of Matabeleland South and Bulawayo, and gets no services from Matopos district. The 2.5km road to the centre is now in very poor condition, and efforts to persuade the RDC to do anything about it have not so far borne fruit.

There is a slight possibility that the coming elections may give new impetus to the politicians to demonstrate that they are trying to provide services to the people, but there are no guarantees!