16 Oct 2019

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi says government is considering construction of a new hospital in Lobatse because the current one, Athlone Hospital, is too small and old.

Dr Masisi said this when addressing a Kgotla meeting in Lobatse yesterday.

He said funding for putting up the facility  would be discussed in February next year during the National Development Plan (NDP) 11 mid-term review.

“If I continue as president I will make sure that a new hospital is built in Lobatse including accommodation for nurses and doctors,” he said.

Dr Masisi further promised that his government, if returned to power, would use the NDP 11 mid-term review to discuss funding for expansion of the Pioneer

Border Post near Lobatse saying the current facility was too small.  

President Masisi also said government would facilitate the introduction of cultural heritage tourism in Lobatse saying the town had big potential for the industry because it hosted many political struggle icons from both South Africa and Mozambique.

“Stories can be developed about places where these freedom fighters used to stay while living in Lobatse.

We can then use it to promote cultural tourism here and attract many tourists from South Africa and other countries to come to Lobatse to see these places,” he said.

He explained that a blossoming cultural heritage tourism would put a lot of money into the Lobatse economy.

He urged the Lobatse community to position themselves to benefit from the value chain in the sector by providing accommodation facilities.

On another issue, Dr Masisi said his government had no intentions of either stopping the Ipelegeng Programme nor the Old Age Pension Scheme.

“I have never said Ipelegeng and old age pension would be stopped,” he said.

He was responding to a question from the Lobatse Umbrella Development Committee chairman, Mr Phemelo Masisi, on whether  the  schemes were going to be discontinued.

The chairman had also asked government to consider building a new hospital to replace Athlone Hospital, upgrade Pioneer Border Post, construct sewerage infrastructure at Woodhall location and speed up allocation of plots in the town.

Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Alfred Madigele concurred that Lobatse required a bigger hospital.

“I fully agree that Lobatse needs a new hospital because Athlone Hospital which was built in 1929 is too old.

We even struggle to bring some services because some facilities are too small in Athlone hospital. The accident and emergency facility is too small and leads to congestion of patients,” the minister said.

Dr Madigele said the ministry was pondering relocating Athlone Hospital to Sbrana Psychiatric Hospital while the process of building a new hospital continued.

He said Sbrana Psychiatric Hospital was not designed for purpose for mentally ill patients.

The ministry planned to relocate the psychiatric hospital to a different site.ENDS