JUST IN | OR Tambo mayor tests positive for Covid-19

OR Tambo district municipality mayor, Thokozile Sokanyile has tested positive for Covid-19, the ANC confirmed on Wednesday.

Sokanyile is the latest ANC leader to test positive for the novel coronavirus after Engcobo municipality mayor Siyabulela Zangqa and Chris Hani district councillors, Khaya Bizana and Yanga Zicina, tested positive last week.

In a statement, ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said Sokanyile was in quarantine. “We have been assured that steps have been taken to secure treatment of the executive mayor and to provide support to her family.”

Steps have also been taken to ensure that officials and others in the leadership structure of the OR Tambo Covid-19 command council who have been in contact with her are screened and have heeded the call for testing. “We wish comrade Thokozile Sokanyile a full and speedy recovery and we are sending our support to her and to the people of the OR Tambo district,” he said.

Ngcukayitobi called on people to adhere to lockdown regulations. “Be courageous, abide by the regulations, get screened and tested,” he said and wished all ANC members who have tested positive for the virus a speedy recovery.