Department won’t use IFP-branded clinic

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File photo

Published Jul 9, 2013

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Durban - A new mobile clinic, branded with the IFP’s logo, would not be used by the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department, Health MEC Sbongiseni Dhlomo said yesterday.

The clinic, donated by Durban businessman Cecil Mahabeer to the IFP to help rural communities gain access to health care, was unveiled by IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi in Durban on Monday.

Dhlomo said the IFP should keep the branded clinic and employ its own doctors and nurses to work in it.

“It will definitely have IFP branding. If it had been donated by an American company it would have carried branding of that company,” said Buthelezi.

Buthelezi said only “adversaries of the IFP” would link the mobile clinic to election campaigning.

His sons Phumaphesheya and Nelisuzulu Buthelezi died of HIV/Aids-related illnesses and he said the clinic would help fight the pandemic.

“The incidence of Aids in this province is the highest in the country,” he said.

IFP spokesman Joshua Mazibuko said he had already written a letter to Dhlomo informing him of the clinic and asking that the department provide medication and nursing staff to run it.

Dhlomo, who is the ANC chairman of the eThekwini region, said the department would only use the mobile clinic if it had Department of Health branding and no IFP logos.

The department will never provide staff to work in the IFP clinic. We would not allow that even if it was done by the ANC,” he said.

The Mercury

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