Windhoek
The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) has committed itself to renovating the toilets at Katutura State Hospital, which are currently in a deplorable and unhygienic condition.
To do this, the SPYL has started the ball rolling with a N$10 000 donation, while another N$50 000 has been set aside for the purchasing of cleaning materials for the exercise. According to some experts who are partnering with the youth wing, it will cost at least N$50 000 to renovate the toilets on one floor of the hospital.
At the launch of the initiative yesterday, Nekundi was joined by some SPYL executives, visiting Africa National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) treasurer general Reggie Nkabinde and Katutura State Hospital’s senior medical superintendent, Nelago Amagulu.
Issues of non-flushing, smelly and unhealthy toilets at that hospital have been a cause of many nightmares for patients, medical officials and a constant source of criticism of government services.
“As a youth league we have observed and heard about the situation at Katutura State Hospital, which obviously has created bad publicity because of various aspects, including the hygiene and cleanliness of the hospital,” Nekundi told journalists.
“We then engaged the office of the management [of the hospital] to see if we can lend a helping hand, to see what we can do and they informed us that the area most critical and a priority to them at this stage is the ablution facilities.”
“Seeing that health goes hand-in-hand with hygiene and the case now is that we have provision of health, but there is no hygiene in the hospitals.” He added: “We mobilised our friends and to see what they can assist with and what we can do as a team.”
He stressed that the SPYL’s starting point will be to renovate the ablution facilities, but Amagulu and her team will guide them. “We will be informed where to start and once we are done with that and the resources are still available, we will go step by step to [renovate] other floors.”
“That is the essence of the initiative and the SPYL has contributed N$10 000 and one of our friends will contribute N$50 000 for the materials. We will start in the next two to three weeks with the actual renovations.”