The medical manager for Knysna and Bitou sub-districts, Dr Andries Brink, expressed his gratitude for and excitement about the site.
Knysna Mayor Elrick van Aswegen congratulates the Department of Transport and Public Works’ acting director of property management, Cheryl Petersen, on the acquisition of the property. Photo: Blake Linder
The Knysna Municipality has finally found a good use for the unused Hornlee taxi rank. It has handed the property over to the Department of Transport and Public Works for the development of a new clinic for Hornlee.
The current Hornlee Clinic is crammed into a building on the corner of Sunridge and St Theresa streets. It is severely limited in the services it can offer to the community and the Department of Health has long been seeking an alternative site for a larger, improved Hornlee Clinic.
They seem to have finally found what they’ve been looking for in the run-down and harshly vandalised Hornlee taxi rank, which has lain forlorn as an eyesore to the Hornlee community since it was completed in 2012. The R9,2-million construction was meant to provide a taxi rank that would alleviate heavy traffic and taxi congestion in both Hornlee and the Knysna CBD.
The idea, while well-meant, did not work out as planned. The taxi rank was severely vandalised within months of its completion and was only ‘opened’ three years later in November 2015. This did not last, however, as shortly thereafter, taxi associations simply stopped using the facility as they deemed it to be not ideal.
Medical manager for Knysna and Bitou sub-districts, Dr Andries Brink.
However, the facility now has a new lease on life. On Friday 1 October, Knysna Mayor Elrick van Aswegen and other municipal delegates officially handed the property over to the Department of Transport and Public Works. The department is the arm of the state that owns and is responsible for developing all state buildings, such as clinics for the Department of Health (DoH).
The Department of Transport and Public Works’ acting director of property management, Cheryl Petersen, signs the new lease alongside Nonhlanhla Mndebela, Knysna Municipality’s head of property.
Van Aswegen spoke fondly of his memories of his late mother working at the current Hornlee Clinic. “She would be so proud to see the clinic that will eventually occupy this site, and I know that I am immensely proud to be a part of this historic moment,” he said.
The medical manager for Knysna and Bitou sub-districts, Dr Andries Brink, expressed his gratitude for and excitement about the site.
“We want to make this facility one that is of a world-class standard and that can be used by not only residents of Hornlee, but anyone in Knysna who needs medical services,” he said.
From left are the medical manager for Knysna and Bitou sub-districts, Dr Andries Brink; Knysna speaker Myrtle Gombo; DTPW acting director of property management Cheryl Petersen; DTPW regional manager of property management Edwellen Arendse; and Knysna Mayor Elrick van Aswegen. Photos: Blake Linder
According to DoH spokesperson Nadia Ferreira, the concept designs for the clinic are in draft, so the project is still in the planning phase, but she says the process has started. “Construction will hopefully start early in the new financial year i.e. somewhere after April 2022,” she explained. The department hopes to have the clinic up and running by the end of 2023.
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