Central SA
FS Health determined to reopen closed clinics─── ZENANDE MPAME 09:19 Wed, 25 Jun 2025
The Free State Department of Health is putting in effort to address compliance issues raised by the Department of Labour in its health facilities.
Health MEC Monyatso Mahlatsi has vowed to restore services at the Bophelong Clinic and the Leratong Clinic in Allanridge, which were closed because of noncompliance with health and safety regulations.
The MEC visited the facilities on Friday (20/6), and the aim was to address compliance issues and assess the impact of recent incidents on healthcare services in the region. “I visited the two clinics, and I realized that we have a serious structural problem to the extent that one of the clinics was closed by labour through a prohibition notice,” said Mahlatsi.
The MEC of Health, Monyatso Mahlatsi, has vowed to restore services at the Bophelong Clinic and the Leratong Clinic in Allanridge. Photo: OFM
“I’m relieved that the management of the district has interacted with public facilities in the area, and our workers will find space to operate from whilst we try to resolve the issues in that space.”
At the second clinic, an engagement has happened with the Department of Labour, and the department will be allowed to utilise the facility that is being constructed, and that will relieve the situation, he said.
The Department of Health has other healthcare facilities that have been closed by the Labour Department due to non-compliance. The Lusaka clinic in Theunissen was closed by the Welkom Labour Centre inspectors on Monday, 5 May.
The clinic was closed because of employees’ and patients’ exposure to health hazards. It was broken into about four times between mid-December and January and had to be closed due to the extent of physical damage caused to the facility.
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“I also visited the Lejweleputswa district office where our supply chain office was ravaged by fire, and I realized that we have lost quite a lot of stock,” said Mahlatsi. “The advice from the acting district manager indicated that we have lost consumables and equipment to the value of more than R800,000, which is close to a million.”
We are looking for a new office space for the staff, as well as a new location for our stock, because the place that caught fire was where we stored our equipment, he said.
