By Chrispin Inambao
WINDHOEK
Health and Social Services Minister, Dr Richard Kamwi, has implied covert scheming reaching a crescendo leading to the “life-and-death” Swapo Party Congress could be the motive behind the accusations that he downgraded a district hospital.
Recently, a multitude of wildly excited callers levelled all manner of accusations through the NBC radio phone-in programme, literally crucifying the Minister whom they claim downgraded the status of the church-run Onandjokwe Hospital to that of a mere clinic.
And when the National Assembly opened on Tuesday DTA MP Phillemon Moongo did not help matters when he further fanned debate saying the hospital was downgraded.
Moongo who also serves as headman at Omalaala Village near Oshakati is Ndonga.
And to compound matters, the Ministry of Health under Kamwi was accused of not only having downgraded the hospital but of having removed and trucked some of the medical equipment to the Oshakati State Hospital while slashing the number of nursing staff.
Onandjokwe Hospital is in the Oshikoto Region dominated by the Ndonga tribe while the Oshakati State Hospital is in the Oshana Region where Kwambi tribesmen are in the majority. Both communities are dialects of Oshiwambo, now formed by eight tribes.
In reply to a question, the Minister who has, of late, come under heavy criticism with regard to his overall hospital administration said: “We know this is political,” adding unfortunately it’s the nature of developments leading to the Swapo Party Congress.
“People are up in arms talking badly about the Minister having downgraded the Onandjokwe Hospital. I refute these allegations. It is a fabricated story.
There is no truth in it,” he said in his dismissal of the allegations yesterday.
“We have not changed the status of the Onandjokwe Hospital. I term this as most unfortunate,” stressed the Minister.
Some of the problems at the hospital such as the shortage of nurses and pharmacy staff is due to the drying up of donor funds from the Evangelical Church in Europe while some of the equipment is old and is in a dilapidated state, urgently needing replacement.
At a meeting held on September 5 attended by Kamwi, the new Permanent Secretary Kahijoro Kahuure, Dr Norbert Foster the Under-Secretary, Dr Naftali Hamata, the Regional Health Director for Oshana, Maria Kavezembi, the Regional Health Director for Oshikoto and Bishop Johannes Sindano, and the two parties signed a 50/50 agreement.
It was agreed that all patient referrals from Eenhana and Kongo hospitals to Onandjokwe should resume immediately, while Kavezembi was given the mandate to recruit retired nurses and pharmacy staff, an exercise for which funds are already there.
Though ideally she would need to recruit 20 pensioners so far, she received seven applications that have already been forwarded to the Ministry for the PS’s approval.
Concerning the dilapidated equipment, a report is being compiled and potential donors are being approached so that they could chip in with the necessary funding.
The management and the finance are being reviewed for the private ward that is the goose that seems to be laying the golden eggs for the cash-pressed Lutheran Church.
Under the 50/50 agreement, funding for capital development at the hospital is under discussion to ensure capital development could be implemented without delay.
And as a parting shot to his critics, Kamwi said he would never waver and betray the very principles that drove him into exile after he was brutally tortured by the colonial regime.