@Dr Zweli Mkhize
Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, said that government was not taking over the running of the Eastern Cape Health Department.
The Minister returned to the Eastern Cape on Wednesday, inspecting facilities at Livingstone Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay, which was the recent focus of a hard-hitting BBC story on South Africa’s hospitals of “horror”.
In an address during the visit, Mkhize said that he had the assurance from the Premier, the MEC and the Superintendent General indicating what their responsibilities were in putting Covid19 mitigating measures in place.
“So, I am quite fine with that because basically they have the responsibility to run the Department. Our responsibility is to ensure that they do," he said.
"We must just make sure that things happen," Mkhize added.
Earlier, Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Mabuyane, established a Project Management Unit in the Department of Health, headed by Dr Sibongile Zungu, one of the officials seconded to the province to assist the Department of Health.
Mkhize said he was satisfied with the reports from the PMU, but appealed to them to “refine the timelines”.
Meanwhile, as the number of deaths in the province reaches 945, with over 66 700 infections, the Health Minister called on EC Health MEC, Sindiswa Gomba to report Covid19 fatalities on a daily basis.
This, after she said that her team had uncovered inaccuracies in the number of reported COVID-19 deaths in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
"I will request that your team continues to report deaths as they come. Don't wait. Don't say you haven't found all of them, you'll never find all of them," Minister Mkhize said.
The Minister also reported that as of Wednesday, the number of confirmed Covid19 cases was 381 798, adding that the total number of deaths stood at 5 368 while there were 208 144 recoveries.
