TREES and grass have grown in a structure that was supposed to house a mortuary at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo which has not been completed 25 years after its construction started.

The hospital has recently been dogged by problems that have exposed the institution’s dilapidated infrastructure.

Last week, fire damaged a block of flats that housed doctors in the process destroying property worth US$500 000.

Apart from the mortuary, some of the incomplete structures at the institution include a chapel and residential flats.

So old is the mortuary structure that trees are now growing inside the incomplete building while overgrown grass covers the outside. The structure was meant to be bigger than the mortuary in use at the institution.

Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer Professor Solwayo Ngwenya proposed that the incomplete structure could be used for other purposes.

“The contractor has been there for many, many years. But there hasn’t been any contact yet that I am aware of with him as far as I can remember. His contract was done from Central Government together with Sally Mugabe Hospital.

The Government tried to build these structures in both sister hospitals,” said Prof Ngwenya.

He said although he was not privy to details of the project, he called for its resuscitation.

“I think the Government must resuscitate this project and since we have acute shortage of accommodation, we can change its use from being a mortuary to living quarters and this can easily be done from the structures that are already there. This will alleviate the problems that we have with accommodation. We should look towards investing in areas where people that are alive will use rather than in a mortuary. There is also a chapel there that was never completed, that too can also be turned into a residential area,” said Prof Ngwenya.- The Sunday News