Premier Oscar Mabuyane’s office on Sunday denied suggestions that the provincial health department had been placed under administration, saying the establishment of a project management unit on Friday, led by health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize’s adviser Dr Sibongile Zungu, was not a takeover but “a support intervention”.

Even though Mabuyane had said the unit had been given full administrative powers, he said it was “not that the provincial health department has been placed under administration per se, but in this crisis it cannot be business as usual”...