The growing number of COVID-19 infections in the Western Cape is a matter of concern and the National Command Centre should ‘intervene’ in the province,
This is the view of the chairperson of the portfolio committee on health in the National Assembly, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo. ‘The increasing number of infected people in the province is alarming and calls for drastic measures to be put in place to push back the frontiers of the spread of the virus in the province,’ he said.
He referred to reports about the conditions for homeless people in facilities run by the City of Cape Town, as well as the increasing number of infections as grounds for concern. People were also reportedly testing positive and not being quarantined in designated facilities, but sent home, he said. The demonstrated that the planning in the Western Cape was deficient.
‘Some of the Members of Parliament have expressed their concerns to me regarding the challenges that the Western Cape Province is experiencing. Some of the members of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health said they have received reports from the people about labour inspectors who are denied access to workplaces in Cape Town, in rural towns in the province, and in the farms,’ he added.
The Western Cape, run by the Democratic Alliance (DA), is the only province not under the governance of the African National Congress (ANC). The growth of COVID-19 cases has become a politically contested matter. The premier of the province, Alan Winde, has ascribed this to a ‘more rigorous testing approach’.
Some voices within the ANC have accused the provincial government of more than ineffectiveness. Ronaldo Nalumango, a senior member of the ANC in the province, recently penned an article which said that the DA would use the crisis ‘as an opportunity to lessen the impoverished population’.