The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted a Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) application to the Mpumalanga Department of Health to compel the MEC to release release detailed and daily provincial Covid-19 statistics.
The people of this province are in the dark about the true rate of testing, tracing and tracking. To make matters worse, Mpumalanga Health MEC Sasekani Manzini and her department have consistently been publishing false, inaccurate or incomplete data of Covid-19 cases on their Facebook page.
The MEC has more than once published misleading information on the number of positive cases in the province. Her information often does not match data released by the national Health Department.
The DA has tried on several occasions to engage MEC Manzini on this issue, but to no avail.
Mpumalanga is the only province where Covid-19 stats are seemingly fluctuating. The people of Mpumalanga are concerned about these inconsistencies and they’re looking for answers. The DA has also written to Premier Refilwe Mtsheni-Tsipane early last month complaining about the inaccuracies but she has not yet responded.
The DA is also concerned that Mpumalanga is the only province where the Covid-19 Provincial Central Command does not include opposition parties represented in the legislature. They have failed to learn from the national Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, who has gone out of his way to work with all stakeholders and opposition parties in the fight against this pandemic.
Mpumalanga has also not convened a virtual health portfolio committee meeting to report to members about Covid-19. We are also the only province that doesn’t publish the number of people that have been tested on a regular basis.
What are they hiding?
In the DA-run Western Cape, Premier Alan Winde releases daily statistics that are broken down into regions, fatalities and most importantly tests conducted. With our application we hope to compel the Mpumalanga Department of Health to do the same.
The DA will always put the people of Mpumalanga first and will not stop holding irresponsible executives to account. We will continue to do this without any fear or favour.