Freedom Park has become a place of healing for the sick, and of reading for learners.
With its state of the art clinic now open and a new library under construction, the area now offers better prospects than it did in the past.
Twenty years since it emerged as a sprawling informal settlement in the south of the City, Freedom Park has become more habitable, offering good healthcare to the sick and a conducive reading environment.
On April 1, community members came out in numbers to welcome Executive Mayor Mpho Parks Tau and first lady Bongi Ngema-Zuma, who had come to turn a sod, marking the start of construction for the Freedom Park Library. The South African Police Service (SAPS) brass band and Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officials marched from the Library site to the new Freedom Park clinic.
The Executive Mayor cut the ribbon to officially open the clinic as the SAPS brass band and the JMPD played the national anthem and the national flag and the City of Johannesburg flag were hoisted in the clinic. The mayor said he was happy to open the clinic in Freedom Park. “Freedom Park is one of the areas I have known from its inception in 1993, when it had about 15 shacks and now has a population of more than 10 000.”
MMC for Health and Social Development, Nonceba Molwele said the department had allocated a budget of R27 million to build five clinics in the 2012/13 financial year and they opted to build two of the best clinics in Slovoville and Freedom Park. “I want to congratulate the community of Freedom Park for giving birth to a world class clinic,” added the MMC.
According to the Health Manager of Region G, Hlubikazi Ntamehlo ,the clinic started as a mobile clinic that only visited the area two days a week, then a permanent container was placed opposite the new clinic.
The clinic has nine consulting rooms, including a mother to child acute care, an adolescent centre and emergency room with all the equipment to stabilize a patient. The clinic also caters for people with disabilities as it has a toilet that allows wheelchairs
“We are ready to take on the private clinics now,” said the delighted Ntamehlo.
