In 1992 the company employed less than 5 people who led our first hospital Botshelong Empilweni Private Hospital to open its doors to the Vosloorus community in 1994. With over 20 years of providing quality healthcare in the communities we operate in, Clinix Health Group owns and manages seven hospitals and has approximately 2600 individuals that are working in our hospitals on a daily basis.
The Visionaries
In reaction to the inequalities in healthcare, members of a discussion group which included Dr G.M. Pitje, a lawyer, Mr R. Maponya, a businessman, and 36 doctors – one of whom was Dr N. Motlana – came together to level the playing fields by forming their own company which would look at establishing a medical scheme and a private clinic, to operate in the disadvantaged black community.
Kwacha, the founding company was established, after which Sizwe Medical fund was launched.
The Result
At the time that Sizwe was being set-up, the dream of establishing a corresponding private clinic was also eventually realised in 1985. Discrimination prevailed and blacks were put into private wards to keep them separated from whites – at a greater cost than they could afford. Through hardships, Lesedi in Soweto, was formed. The clinic was built on land which had been earmarked for an abattoir.
To this day, Kwacha is part land shareholder. This marked the turn-around in access to private healthcare. Clinix Health Group was started in 1992. The company opened its first hospital, Clinix Botshelong Empilweni Private Hospital, in April 1994. In 2016, Lesedi Clinic was renamed Dr SK Matseke Memorial Hospital in honour of an astute contributor to education in Soweto.