BULAWAYO - Villagers in Irisvale resettlement area in Umzingwane district have gone for six months without a primary health care after nurses fled a local clinic owing to incessant paranormal attacks believed to be the work of goblins.
The attacks on nursing staff forced villagers to employ locals in a bid to circumvent the situation.
A series of paranormal incidents hit the health institution in October last year leaving locals clueless who to turn to for relief after having exhausted many channels.
The absence of nurses at the clinic has impacted negatively on the lives of the villagers living in the affected area.
“We have handled this issue in different ways,” said ward 2 councillor Stephen Ngwenya.
“We have arrived at situation where we employ locals in a bid to help ourselves.
“We have talked to them, they are qualified and we agreed that they might be starting on Monday or anytime next week.
“So far we have nurses from Esigodini who are only coming twice a week but they don’t stay here. The situation is just bad here, you know how it is when you have to travel several kilometres in order to access a clinic, life is just difficult here.”
Ngwenya said the villagers were still struggling to find a lasting solution to the “curse” that has threatened to compromise health delivery system in the vicinity.
“We are asking each other here and we have failed to get an answer. We don’t know when it will end. We might not know the owner but it’s a fact that the goblins are from this place and are owned by local people,” Ngwenya said.
The councillor said recently Tsikamutandas from Gokwe descended on the area and told them that the place was now cleansed.
“Many have come to conduct cleansing ceremonies but when the nurses returned they complained of attacks once again. Different churches came, Tsikamutandas from Gokwe came and told us the place is now clean and I strongly suspect that the nurses are now just afraid to come,” Ngwenya added.
Speaking to the Daily News, Matabeleland South provincial medical director William Busuman, said he was still waiting for the traditional leaders to cleanse the place before he could deploy the nurses.
“I am ready to send my staff there but if the place is not habitable what can I do? We cannot just push them. We are human beings we want our health workers to work in an environment that is conducive,” said Busuman.
“As you may be aware the problem has been on-going for decades now so I am waiting for the chiefs and the councillors to tell me that the place has been cleansed then I can send my staff there. The nurses are there and are ready to go.”
Busuman confirmed that nurses were only visiting the clinic twice a week without actually residing at the place as a temporary measure.
Irisvale Clinic is located 85km from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, off the main Gwanda highway in Matabeleland South Province.
The clinic, situated a stone’s throw from Zuka Business Centre, under Chief Mabhena, caters for about five of the 13 wards in the constituency.
When the clinic finally shut down in October last year following the absence of nursing staff, it had also been forced to close for months two years back following similar mysterious attacks from the creatures of the underworld.
According to villagers, nurses always complained of a resurgent spate of scary and traumatising happenings each night female nurses go to bed.
The attacks on nursing staff forced villagers to employ locals in a bid to circumvent the situation.
A series of paranormal incidents hit the health institution in October last year leaving locals clueless who to turn to for relief after having exhausted many channels.
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| Clinic still shut down |
“We have handled this issue in different ways,” said ward 2 councillor Stephen Ngwenya.
“We have arrived at situation where we employ locals in a bid to help ourselves.
“We have talked to them, they are qualified and we agreed that they might be starting on Monday or anytime next week.
“So far we have nurses from Esigodini who are only coming twice a week but they don’t stay here. The situation is just bad here, you know how it is when you have to travel several kilometres in order to access a clinic, life is just difficult here.”
Ngwenya said the villagers were still struggling to find a lasting solution to the “curse” that has threatened to compromise health delivery system in the vicinity.
“We are asking each other here and we have failed to get an answer. We don’t know when it will end. We might not know the owner but it’s a fact that the goblins are from this place and are owned by local people,” Ngwenya said.
The councillor said recently Tsikamutandas from Gokwe descended on the area and told them that the place was now cleansed.
“Many have come to conduct cleansing ceremonies but when the nurses returned they complained of attacks once again. Different churches came, Tsikamutandas from Gokwe came and told us the place is now clean and I strongly suspect that the nurses are now just afraid to come,” Ngwenya added.
Speaking to the Daily News, Matabeleland South provincial medical director William Busuman, said he was still waiting for the traditional leaders to cleanse the place before he could deploy the nurses.
“I am ready to send my staff there but if the place is not habitable what can I do? We cannot just push them. We are human beings we want our health workers to work in an environment that is conducive,” said Busuman.
“As you may be aware the problem has been on-going for decades now so I am waiting for the chiefs and the councillors to tell me that the place has been cleansed then I can send my staff there. The nurses are there and are ready to go.”
Busuman confirmed that nurses were only visiting the clinic twice a week without actually residing at the place as a temporary measure.
Irisvale Clinic is located 85km from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, off the main Gwanda highway in Matabeleland South Province.
The clinic, situated a stone’s throw from Zuka Business Centre, under Chief Mabhena, caters for about five of the 13 wards in the constituency.
When the clinic finally shut down in October last year following the absence of nursing staff, it had also been forced to close for months two years back following similar mysterious attacks from the creatures of the underworld.
According to villagers, nurses always complained of a resurgent spate of scary and traumatising happenings each night female nurses go to bed.
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