It took R1bn in donations to build the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, but nine months after its launch party, the world-class facility is not fully open yet and lacks funding to cover operational costs.
Built by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and owned by a trust established by it, it was envisaged that the hospital would be a state-of-the-art facility for children needing cancer treatment, dialysis or heart operations.
It has top-of-the-range equipment, theatres that can broadcast operations to remote locations for training or for communicating with specialists abroad. It looks like a children’s hotel, is decorated with wallpaper inspired by doodles, has free living facilities for 27 families and an in-house radio station…..more
