Health sector trade union, Hospersa, has called for the removal of Eastern Cape Health MEC, Sindiswa Gomba, for “her poor performance in handling the Covid19 pandemic” in the province.
In a hard-hitting statement on Thursday, the union also accused the MEC of “approving physical group gatherings in health facilities” in contravention of lockdown regulations.
General-Secretary, Noel Desfontaines, said, “a week ago” reports emerged of the poor performance of the Eastern Cape Health Department in dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic.
“This forced the Minister of Health to step in and appoint a senior director to help curb the rising numbers which currently sit at 630 positive cases in the province,” he said.
“Alarmingly, these statistics might even be inaccurate as other health officials in the province had slammed the EC Health MEC for poor administration which has led to questions of the accuracy of the data being provided by her office,” Desfontaines added.
“Our members in the EC Province have reported that permission is being granted to hold physical group meetings even during the lockdown period,” he alleged, adding that some officials had been granted permission to travel more than 400km to attend such meetings using government vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa said in a statement earlier this month that it “was questioning the preparedness of the province in handling the rapidly increasing numbers of people testing positive for Coronavirus.”
The Economic Freedom Fighters in the Eastern Cape, as well as the ANC Youth League in Nelson Mandela Bay, also called for MEC Gomba’s removal.
In its response to the Hospersa statement, the Eastern Cape Health Department said, “we have noted the statement by the union and our view is that we have exhausted the matter and do not wish to comment further.”
“The work being done on the ground speaks for itself as illustrated by the number of recovered COVID-19 patients in the province,” the Department concluded.
