Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre

The clinic was established as one of the Black Community Programmes (BCPs) spearheaded by Steve Biko and Mamphela Ramphele.

[2] At the time, residents in the Ciskei region experienced the negative effects of the migrant labour system, state neglect, decreasing agricultural sustainability (as many young skilled men had left to work in the mines), inadequate health services and an influx of people due to forced removals.

[3] The village of Zinyoka in the Ciskei experienced all of these challenges with rural health clinics scattered approximately 20 kilometres apart.

The Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre mainly served people from the surrounding rural areas.

[4] The startup funding came from Angela Mai, a German citizen born in South Africa, who approached the BCP with between R20 000 - R30 000.

The facility expanded and was fully equipped with beds, flushing toilets, electricity and clean water, amenities that many of the residents of Zinyoka were unaccustomed to.

[9] Zanempilo not only functioned as a health facility, but also as a political meeting point, training ground for activists, community centre to discuss problems and place of events and celebrations.

Two weeks after the death of Steve Biko, on the 17 October 1977, all black consciousness organisations including the BCPs were banned.