Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday urged health professionals to selflessly serve South Africans to revive the citizenry”s hope.
“The professionals will not be angry with the patients and people they handle. They will indeed handle the people with the understanding that they are doing a national duty,” said Zuma.
He was officially launching the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in GA-Rankuwa north of Pretoria on Tuesday
He said the university’s produce must move South Africa forward by providing critical skills.
“We want professionals that must be outstanding in looking after the people. These are professionals who will treat our people with utmost care and dedication,” said Zuma.
“A professional (by) just talking to you and touching you, you must already feel better. This new, democratic South Africa makes citizens feel comfortable and we, as professionals, must make them feel good once we have talked. Give them hope. Tell them they will be better.”
Zuma said the university currently had 5 034 students enrolled.
“The projected growth for this institution is 7 000 students by 2019 and then 10, 000 students by 2024,” he said.
“The university will recruit students from communities with the greatest healthcare needs and provide innovative training programmes including distance programmes which will provide students from all over the country with access to quality healthcare education.”
Zuma said for the 2015/16 financial year, an amount of more than R298 million has been allocated in the form of a university subsidy for the operations of the institution.
“In addition, government has also allocated R210 million to support the establishment of this new university,” he said.
Zuma said the institution needed to endeavour to produce patriotic healthcare workers.
“If you serve your country, and you are patriotic, you will do a lot for our country. If you are less patriotic you will always see wrong in the country and not participate,” said Zuma.
He said patriots “would not sell their country negatively”, but rather participate in re-shaping the country.
“We expect that professionals, particularly health professionals, emerging out of this university will see the greater need to serve people of this country rather than leaving the country,” said Zuma to applause.
“We want patriots who serve the country. If you are not that patriotic, you then go and serve somewhere else.”
He said he hoped that the university would produce patriots who would never tarnish the image of their profession.
The university is named after Sefako Mapogo Makgatho who was the second president of the African National Congress (ANC).
The university opened its doors in January this year after it was uncoupled from the University of Limpopo.
The new university would continue to train medical and allied health sciences professionals while it would also introduce new academic offerings ranging from biometrical technology to bio-engineering.
ANA