THE first disability-friendly clinic in Buffalo City is open for patients.

The John Dube Clinic, in Scenery Park, East London, was recently revamped using funds from the Centre for Municipal Research and Advice (CMRA) and the Netherlands embassy.

It was officially reopened on 14 August, with a welcome by Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku who applauded the municipal workers for the renovations and for their commitment to bringing services to the people.

"Today's launch of this disability-friendly clinic is the culmination of a concerted effort between Buffalo City Municipality and its development partners to improve the status of people with disabilities, and to assist them to access public buildings and technological facilities with ease," she added.

CMRA managing director, Frank Burgers, gave a background of the centre. "We are placed by the South African Local Government Association to facilitate learning and implementation of various projects and in return the municipality learns about their strengths and weaknesses."

Sthembele Lunguza, the manager of the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons, said: "We are glad that Buffalo City is making ways for the disabled to ensure that they have easy access to primary health facilities."

Giving her keynote address, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, the deputy minister of public works, said: "Today we share the aspirations of all people with disabilities. We must ensure utilisation of these services and fully train people to understand people with disabilities and to change their attitudes."

Bogopane-Zulu was previously the CMRA's adviser on disability programmes. In the Department of Public Works, her responsibilities include monitoring all government buildings and making sure that they are accessible to people living with disabilities.

Buffalo City is working to make its facilities more accessible to its disabled citizens. Besides John Dube Clinic, two other clinics, Cambridge and Berlin, are also being renovated and upgraded to make them disability-friendly. The municipality has also installed a marlin enlarger, specially adapted computers and a Braille printer at the Central Library in East London, "in a bid to assist our blind and partially blind citizens to access knowledge and information easily and comfortably", said Faku.

Quoting from her State of the City speech, Faku touched deeply on the development approach the municipality has adopted towards women, youth, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet was also at the clinic's reopening, saying: "This clinic is for everyone and I'm glad I was here to witness the launch."

Wrapping up the programme, Leon Hartwell from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands congratulated the municipality on a job well done. "We have been supporting this municipality for years and we are eternally grateful to learn that they are using the funds to provide for everyone."