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Nelson Mandela Bay Covid-19 mortality rate clearly false

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Dear MyPE

According to statistics released daily by the Eastern Cape Department of Health, the mortality rate from the Covid-19 virus in Nelson Mandela Bay has remained constant at 136 deaths since 30 June 2020.

These figures are false. Hospital mortuaries are struggling to cope with the number of corpses on a daily basis and funeral parlours are stretched to the absolute limit as they try to keep up with the number of daily burials in the district.

Why is the Department not releasing the true figures? Does the Eastern Cape MEC for Health, Sindiswe Gomba, think that the public are foolish enough to believe that there has been no increase in the daily death toll in the Bay since 30 June? Or is the department in such disarray that accurate records have simply not been kept?

This outrageous state of affairs is further evidence that for the past ten years, the leadership in this province have done nothing but bask in the reflected glory of our democracy’s first leaders, who worked hard to ensure that services were delivered and the economy was stable.

The only meaningful activity that has prevailed in the past decade is the increased employment of incompetent cadres in official positions, to loot state coffers without compunction. There is nothing like a health crisis to expose this rot.

There is still, after a full four months of lockdown, no clear and effective plan to respond to the virus in a co-ordinated and organised manner. The public have been kept in the dark, despite the Democratic Alliance requesting on numerous occasions that a daily dashboard, updated in real time, be made available to them.

Furthermore, the DA has repeatedly said that the Department should be working hand in hand with the private sector to provide an effective and professional response to the crisis. There are statisticians in the private sector who could have managed the database and produced accurate and accessible daily statistics to keep the public informed, and thereby empowered.

The dashboard that the provincial government has created (and to which nobody has access) yesterday reflected 136 mortalities in Nelson Mandela Bay, so it, too, is wrong. This information is supposed to inform the response to the pandemic. No wonder the response has been such a shambles.

I will write to MEC Gomba and urge her to come clean and keep the public informed of the real number of mortalities per district.

Hiding the true figures is criminal and shows the utter contempt with which this provincial government treats its people. The longer Premier Oscar Mabuyane protects such leadership, the weaker he becomes.

The DA will not stand idly by and allow this misinformation to be spread while our people suffer due to MEC Gomba and her Department’s lack of capacity and inability to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Regards

Jane Cowley, MPL
DA Eastern Cape Shadow MEC for Health

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