EMALAHLENI – Mpumalanga MEC for Health, Sasekani Manzini, was accused of misleading the province by providing wrong information on the positive cases of the Covid-19 on 2 April.
An infographic release on 1 April said that the province had 14 confirmed positive cases of Covid-19 but it also revealed that none of the above were tested positive. The Democratic Alliance leader, Jane Sithole, said, “The MEC stated in a press release in the beginning of the week that Mpumalanga has 14 cases. However, the National Department of Health has contradicted the MEC by releasing statistics in the last two days indicating that Mpumalanga has 12 confirmed cases. Both MEC Manzini and the National Health Department must clarify the inconsistencies with the COVID-19 within the province,” Sithole said.
DA is concerned about the safety of the employees working at clinics and other hospitals since it was previously said by MEC Manzini that only Rob Ferreira hospital will receive PPE (Protective Personnel Equipment). “Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane promised every hospital to receive Protective Personnel Equipment (PPE) but according to MEC Manzini said only Rob Ferreira hospital will be provided with the PPE as that is the identified hospital within the province to deal with the virus,” she said.
Mpumalanga Health Department spokesperson, Dumsani Malamule, confirmed that the previously released stats were incorrect but said that the mistake has since been corrected. Positive cases of the virus are growing day by day.
Community member, Lucia Gumede, said “The department of health should not give us wrong information regarding the virus. The virus is killing us every day. We depend on health department to get correct information.”
