DA urges Makhubo to halt travel of councillors

City of Johannesburg mayor Geoff Makhubo has been asked to stop the city’s councillors, officials and staff from undertaking trips to all countries affected by the coronavirus.

The call was made in an open letter to Makhubo by DA Johannesburg caucus leader Leah Knott, who said a ban must be imposed on travels to affected countries.

“In light of the seriousness of the coronavirus and its global declaration as a pandemic, the DA in Johannesburg calls on you to place an immediate ban on all international travel of both officials and councillors within the City of Johannesburg to affected countries.

“As South Africa’s most populated city, as well as being one of the continent’s major economic and transit hubs, Johannesburg could soon find itself facing a major health crisis,” Knott said.

She said the city manager and executive mayor ought to take urgent steps to ensure the city’s administration did not risk further exposure to global hotspots by ensuring that officials, staff and councillors do not travel abroad.

Knott reiterated the appeal from the DA’s shadow minister of health to health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize to institute a mandatory self-quarantine period of 14 days for all travellers coming from high-risk countries, whether the person was symptomatic or not.

South Africa has not yet decided to implement a mandatory self-quarantine, and is only dealing with cases as they are being identified.

DA shadow health minister and MP Siviwe Gwarube pledged to ask Mkhize to table the recommendation on 14-day self-quarantine for consideration.

“It is of great concern that these new infections are now outside the initial group of 10 travellers who visited Italy. These new cases are now people who have recently travelled to certain European countries and landed back in South Africa in the last couple of days. What is also worrying is that the first local transmission case has been made public by the Department of Health. The details around this case are still unclear,” Gwarube said.

The DA MP said self-quarantine of 14 days for travellers from high-risk European countries would be a preventative strategy to ensure that they are isolated and then tested for the virus in order to ensure that we don’t have a situation where an asymptotic traveller is missed at the initial screening procedure.

Knott, in her letter to Makhubo, said as the number of South African infections continue to rise, so the risks to residents must be treated as highest priority and must be kept informed in order to be kept safe.

“For this reason, the DA is deeply concerned that the MMC for Health, Councillor Eunice Mgcina, has largely been silent on this issue. Our City’s Health Administration ought to be mobilising resources and disseminating information to ensure that our local clinics are well prepared to confront this pandemic,” Knott said.

While the DA said it acknowledged that there was a need to prevent panic, the economic and social risks the virus posed required an urgent response from the city’s administration, as well as its provincial and national counterparts.

“We appeal to MMC Mgcina and yourselves to present a credible strategy which ensures that residents are provided with prevention protocols and treatment options that will protect our citizens,” she said.

DA interim leader John Steenhuisen, in his latest online newsletter, Straight Talk, on Friday said the coronavirus would hit wealthier people first, as they’re the ones who can travel to places like Italy, UK, China and bring it back to South Africa. But it would hit poorer people hardest, as they have less access to quality healthcare, and less of a financial buffer if the virus results in job losses, which is highly likely.

“The urban poor will find it harder to slow the spread, living in densely populated townships and using public transport. So, there is a moral obligation on wealthier people to take precautions, particularly social distancing, now to slow the spread of the virus. In addition, our healthcare system needs manpower and money, so that it is best able to treat those who do become infected,” Steenhuisen said.

“This virus highlights the importance of building a capable state. A capable state is a resilient state, with the ability to manage disasters and recover quickly. South Africa is vulnerable now, because of our largely dysfunctional public healthcare system and our growing debt problem. Living prudently and saving for a rainy day applies as much to a country as it does to a family,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw) has rejected self-quarantine measures by government.

“Self-quarantine is not an option for majority of South Africans. How will this triage be handled? If people are made to wait in long queues, it means even more people will be infected. The unions most significant concern is that South Africa is just completely unprepared for this,” said Nupsaw spokesperson Kagiso Makoe.

Nupsaw said it felt that government’s decision to deliberately allow people to self-quarantine diverted attention from the fact that the government does not have correct testing equipment at airports and good health systems around the country.

“Self-quarantine is not particularly effective, it’s expensive and extremely mentally challenging. A lot of individuals will find it daunting and will ignore the medical advises to remain in confinement for at least two weeks and monitor themselves, many will be finding themselves infecting more people by just going to malls,” Makoe said.

He said the disease would disproportionately affect everyone from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor in South Africa.

“Multiple people living in a shack together means that self-isolation/quarantine is impossible. Many people live day to day, they can’t stock up on extra supplies.

“The vast majority of South Africans rely on overcrowded taxis to get to move around, these will provide multiple opportunities for infection. Very few poor South Africans can afford not to work and so will likely go to work sick, this is especially true in a recession,” Makoe said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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