G20 Health Working Group: Opportunities for KZN’s healthcare development

KwaZulu-Natal hopes to benefit, not only in terms of health, but other avenues as the province hosts the second G20 Health Working Group. 

The meeting, which will run for the rest of the week, began on Wednesday at The Zimbali Capital Hotel, where Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi delivered the keynote address. 

Speaking after the address, KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said they hoped that when it came to development challenges concerning health, KZN would be able to benefit as the province hosts the second G20 Health Working Group. 

“There are quite a number of areas that we believe we can have interactions with the international world on this matter,” Simelane said. 

“We are looking for partnerships in a number of areas, including a tertiary hospital that we want to build in the north of the province. We have quite a few clinics that we want to build.

“But strengthening our primary healthcare strategy is what we want to work on and ensure that we get partnerships.”

Simelane continued: “It helps to have people that come from outside, might have access and who are willing to invest in a developing country like ours, and that is what we are hoping to achieve out of this.” 

KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said hosting the G20 enables not only the province but the country to showcase what they have to offer not only on health issues but even on the investment opportunities, tourism industry, and other important areas which have an investment potential.

He said this also allowed for the province to connect and strengthen relationships with other important countries on strategic missions that will see the whole world being able to turn around challenges. 

“We are also worried about the withdrawal of the funding by the US, of which as a province, we have no option other than to sit down and look at other ways of, in fact, funding the initiatives because that is also quite very important,” Ntuli said. 

He added that the issue of access to health services, which is a problem in rural communities where they still walk long distances to access ordinary clinics, is problematic. 

“We do have financial constraints for now, but in our plan, we are looking forward to having clinics built,” Ntuli said. 

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za