SACP Western Cape calls on Minister Mkhize to decisively intervene in Western Cape Province amidst increasing Covid-19 cases
10 May 2020
The South African Communist Party (SACP) publicly stated through a press statement on 23 April 2020 that the Western Cape was actually the epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) due to the number of cases relative to the population. Presently, the province has 4,809 cases, which is about half of total cases nationally reportedly standing at 8,895. Wilful blindness and indifference of the Western Cape government continues to endanger the lives of poor and working-class residents amidst the menacing disease.
As the SACP, we welcome the visit by the Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize and further applaud the bold stance by the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health regarding direct intervention in the Western Cape. We remain cautiously optimistic about the visit and feel vindicated by the position of the Portfolio Committee.
When the SACP as well as its Alliance partners raised alarm about the exponential increase in the rate of infections, the Western Cape authorities buried their heads in the sand. They continue hiding behind their spurious logic that the increase was due to their aggressive screening and testing. This fallacy was immediately debunked by a report from the department of health released on 29 April 2020 which revealed that, “In the past 24 hours the Western Cape contributed to 75% of the total new cases nationally while only contributing 30% of total tests over the same period.”
The performance of the DA government has been abysmal in the face of a serious global pandemic. Their shambolic approach to the pandemic is not surprising given the position of their demigod, Helen Zille, who recently downplayed the severity of the pandemic and necessity of the lockdown.
It is clear that the current approach is hopelessly inadequate. Daily, the number of cases and fatalities are increasing, therefore drastic measures must be taken. Compounding the problem further is the recklessness of some unscrupulous businesses that put profit before human life. Many retail stores, in particular, do not cease operations even when positive cases are reported. What is worse is the incident of a reckless farmer who transported seasonal workers back to Eastern Cape during the actual lockdown period. This is nothing but criminality!
The default position of the DA-led Western Cape government is subterfuge, blame-shifting and diversionary tactics hence their latest ploy is to blame the Eastern Cape government for the DA’s own failures. This is a calculated diversionary ploy to hide the DA’s ineptitude and lack of political will to respond to the pandemic effectively.
We reiterate our call for the Minister to decisively intervene in the Western Cape. We further reaffirm our previously stated position that, in line with the risk-adjusted approach, we call on the Command Council to review the relaxation of lockdown regulations in some parts of the province due to the escalating positive cases and related deaths. For this reason, we appeal for stricter implementation and monitoring of health and safety in workplaces, immediately quarantining of all symptomatic persons and further urge the security cluster to deploy more law enforcement to our townships to enforce the regulations.
Issued by Benson Ngqentsu, Provincial Secretary, SACP Western Cape, 10 May 2020
