No PPE, no work, says Mkhize

Where there is no personal protective equipment, frontline workers should not work as that places them at risk of contracting Covid-19, health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday afternoon.

Mkhize was addressing a virtual ANC Sarah Baartman political lecture with the theme: Covid-19 and the lessons learnt towards the attainment the objectives of the national democratic revolution.

He heaped praise on frontline workers, saying they bravely put their lives on the line and saved many lives — sometimes under difficult circumstances.

When the pandemic hit SA on March 5, with the Eastern Cape recording its first case in mid-March, workers continuously complained of not having adequate PPE, resulting in protests and in some cases workers downing tools.

Mkhize said there was concern about the high number of health workers who were infected by the virus.

“But the fatality rate is lower than what we have seen internationally.

“We have taken a stance to say if there is no PPE there should be no work,” he said.

Turning his attention to Covid-19 corruption, Mkhize said all those implicated should be brought to book.

In the Eastern Cape, PPE expenditure in Nelson Mandela Bay, and R4.8m Covid-19 door-to-door awareness campaign invoices in the OR Tambo district municipality are among those being investigated.

Premier Oscar Mabuyane also instructed the provincial treasury to investigate all PPE tenders.

A month later, the provincial government has not released any report on its PPE probes.

Mkhize bemoaned how some companies which were doing business with the state inflated prices for PPE.

This, he said resulted in the number of infections increasing as some people could not afford the inflated prices.

Mkhize said they were working with the auditor-general in fighting PPE corruption and they supported the work being done by the SIU and the Hawks.

“We need to work together to uproot corruption.

“We need to take a stance against gender-based violence and corruption,” Mkhize said.

The minister reiterated his calls for South Africans to adhere to the national lockdown regulations, warning that failure to do that would result in a new surge in infection as was the case in countries like Spain and the US.

“There should be no complacency because the problem of Covid-19 is not over,” he said.

“There is no protection because there is no vaccine yet.

“We’re not out of the woods yet.

“We need to ensure that we are ready for the second surge should it arrive,” he said.

The minister said the pandemic had devastated the economy with poor people hardest hit.

With the country on alert level 1, more businesses were now operating but the tourism sector would continue to struggle as some of the countries whose citizens toured SA the most still had high infection rates “which makes things difficult”.

“The issue now is that we should work together to rebuild [the economy].”

Former Eastern Cape health MEC Pumza Dyantyi called on people to adhere to regulations, saying some had “coronavirus fatigue”.

She said people who had recovered after testing positive would still experience symptoms consistent with the virus.

“But that does not mean you have Covid-19 again,” she said.

HeraldLIVE