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Residents of Gugulethu say the Gugulethu Community Health Centre (CHC) clinic is marred by understaffing, unreasonable waiting times and overcrowding. They want a district hospital to be built.
Social activist Sethu Ngqoyiyana (25), who lives in Gugulethu, says he has experienced ill treatment at the facility multiple times. On the night of 28 June 2025, he suffered a deep stab wound on his forehead during a robbery. He only managed to go to the clinic the morning after the incident. Ngqoyiyana says he waited for fifteen hours before he was seen by a doctor. “I arrived at 6 am and the doctor called me in at 9 pm,” he says.
Ngqoyiyana alleges that around 1 pm, all three doctors took a lunch break that lasted over two hours. “I understand they needed to rest, but there was no one else stepping in during that time. We were just left there waiting, some bleeding and others collapsing,” Ngqoyiyana explains.
“I was stabbed in the forehead, clearly in need of stitches, but I was treated like I could wait indefinitely. Others who were visibly worse than me, struggling to breathe or bleeding more, were told to wait too,” he adds.
According to the Western Cape health department, Ngqoyiyana’s wound was minor, and he was thus categorised as a “yellow” patient. “Patients triaged as yellow are stable and could wait longer for care, once all life-threatening conditions are attended to first,” communications officer for the Klipfontein Mitchells Plain substructure, Samantha Lee-Jacobs explains.
Claims of people denied care
An aggrieved community member from Khikhi informal settlement in Gugulethu, who asked not to be named, tells Health-e News that she thinks ‘patients who know the clinic staff enjoy the privilege of skipping the queue and receive medical attention before others who arrived earlier.’ An infection on her toes is causing her to limp. “Tremendous pains at midnight mean sleepless nights for me,” she says.
On 19 June 2025, she was turned away from the clinic as she was not deemed a priority patient. She says what hurts most is waking up at 5 am and walking to the clinic only to be turned away.
In October 2023, Zezethu Ntshinka (34) of Ramaphosa informal settlement, who brought her 3-month-old baby to the clinic, had to leave without being attended to, with her baby, who was vomiting and had a runny tummy. “When the nurse called out patients’ surnames from the medical records files, she mispronounced mine, and I couldn’t hear it. “That was my sin. The nurse said she has passed it, so I will have to wait until she calls the next round. I waited until I couldn’t anymore”. The unemployed Ntshinka had to spend more money the following day to travel to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital to receive medical attention for her baby.
When asked about staff shortages and long waiting times, Lee-Jacobs says, “Many factors contribute to long waiting times at our emergency centres, especially over month-end weekends. If we have patients who require life-saving interventions, then it requires the entire medical team to assist, which increases the waiting times for other non-emergency patients needing care”.
Calls for a district hospital
Civil society and advocacy group, Movement for Change and Social Justice (MCSJ), says it has been advocating for a new district hospital since 2018. Phelisa Dlangamandla, the coordinator of health-related matters in this organisation, says the Department of Health keeps renovating the facility instead of building a new hospital.
In November 2024, the MCSJ, jointly with the Gugulethu community, protested in front of this facility to express their discontent.
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According to Dlangamandla, the Gugulethu CHC was built in the 1960s for a population of 27 000. It is now serving more than 500 000 people.
“Gugulethu is one of the oldest townships in Cape Town, and yet we have no proper hospital. But areas like Khayelitsha have their own district hospital,” she says.
Dlangamandla further adds that the MSCJ is currently busy engaging other stakeholders in trying to garner support for the district hospital campaign in the region.
Lee-Jacobs tells Health-e News that the Klipfontein Regional Hospital remains at the concept stage.
“Currently, the hospital planning for 2025/2026 aims to progress to the preliminary design, securing statutory approvals, refining cost estimates, and preparing the outline business case for National Treasury,” she says. – Health-e News
