Gauteng Health pays rent while its own clinics stand abandoned

Gauteng Health pays rent while its own clinics stand abandoned

In a province where public hospitals are struggling with staff shortages, broken equipment and shrinking budgets, it’s a story that has left many Gauteng residents shaking their heads.

The Gauteng Department of Health is paying more than R8,000 a month to rent a clinic space in Heidelberg, while a department-owned clinic just a block away stands locked, empty and slowly being reclaimed by weeds.

For locals, it feels like a painful symbol of everything that’s gone wrong in public healthcare planning.

A renovated clinic, locked and unused

Sizanempilo Clinic, located on Mare Street in Heidelberg within the Lesedi municipality, was renovated as recently as October. But instead of reopening its doors, the facility has remained unused after its services were moved to Heidelberg District Hospital.

Meanwhile, patients continue to receive care from an ageing rented building on Ueckermann Street, a property the department has used as a clinic for more than a decade.

Residents say the contrast is stark. One building is modernised and purpose-built. The other is old, worn down and ill-suited for healthcare delivery.

“It makes no sense”

For patients like Lebohang Mahloane from Ratanda, who relies on chronic medication, the situation feels both illogical and unfair.

“There is a clinic that belongs to the department, recently renovated, but it’s locked and neglected,” she said. “Yet government is paying rent for an old building.”

Her frustration reflects a wider public mood. On local WhatsApp groups and community pages, residents are questioning how the department can justify rental costs while its own assets decay.

A broader failure of planning and accountability

Local lawyer Bouwe Wiersma, whose offices overlook the unused clinic, says the building’s continued vacancy is already taking its toll.

Weeds are spreading. The risk of vandalism and theft is growing. And no clear timeline has been shared for when or if, the clinic will be occupied.

“A contractor renovated the facility, but now it’s just standing there,” Wiersma said. “There’s talk that the rented clinic might eventually move into the building, but nothing is happening.”

To him, this isn’t just about Heidelberg. It points to a deeper problem in how public infrastructure is managed.

“Money that could improve services is being wasted on rent,” he said. “That’s the real issue.”

Donor-funded care caught in the crossfire

The abandoned clinic also has a complicated history. According to Wiersma, Sizanempilo previously operated as a TB and HIV/Aids treatment centre, supported by international funding from USAid and the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.

He believes services were shifted after US President Donald Trump cut US aid early last year, leaving donor-funded facilities in limbo and exposing how dependent parts of the system had become on external support.

A province-wide pattern of decay

What’s happening in Heidelberg is not an isolated case.

Across Gauteng, state-owned health facilities continue to drain public funds while delivering little to no service:

• Kempton Park Hospital, closed for nearly 30 years, still costs millions annually in security fees.

• At Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging, a R146 million Covid-era ICU project has stood unfinished for over four years a concrete shell meant to house 300 beds.

• Khutsong West Clinic was shut due to sinkholes, with no long-term solution to dolomitic instability.

• A new Johannesburg forensic laboratory in Auckland Park, costing over R700 million, remains incomplete due to poor workmanship.

All of this comes as the Gauteng Department of Health is projected to underspend R725 million in the 2025/26 financial year, despite unpaid suppliers, staff vacancies and failing infrastructure.

The human cost behind the numbers

For communities relying on public healthcare, these figures aren’t abstract. They translate into longer queues, fewer services, and clinics that feel increasingly neglected.

Residents say the anger isn’t just about money, it’s about priorities.

“How do you explain empty clinics and wasted rent when hospitals are collapsing?” one Heidelberg resident asked online. “Someone needs to be held accountable.”

Until that happens, Sizanempilo Clinic remains a quiet, overgrown reminder that in Gauteng’s health system, resources exist, they’re just not being used where they’re needed most.

{Source: The Citizen}

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