Cape Town – Humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has defended findings it made at the City’s Strandfontein camp for the homeless.
This after mayor Dan Plato publicly criticised a report by MSFs Dr Gilles van Cutsem, a senior TB/HIV adviser with MSF, which found, among other things, that Covid-19 and TB screening and isolation at the emergency shelter was erratic.
Plato said: "It is disconcerting that MSF have resorted to distorted criticism of the City rather than volunteering professional services to assist with the care of the homeless.”
MSF has responded, saying: “In order to set the record straight, MSF stands by the findings of assessments by our medical staff done at shelters for vulnerable groups during lockdown in South Africa in recent weeks.
"We reaffirm that these facilities should receive sufficient resources to meet established Covid-19 prevention criteria. In doing so, the risk of spread of Covid-19, but also other infectious diseases like TB, will be properly addressed for the people living in such sites.”
The Strandfontein Social and Economic Development Forum at the weekend hailed the shutting down of the camp after they filed an urgent application at the Western Cape High Court.
“We know it, the people of Strandfontein and Mitchells Plain know it, and the DA knows it all too well that the bullies from the Civic Centre were stopped,” they said.
Plato said the shelter was always going to be temporary.
“The court accepted that the City had taken measures based on current knowledge and that the City’s response evidenced an approach based on lessons learned as the pandemic progressed and based on the needs and experiences of the occupants.
“The City confirmed that the intention was that this was always a temporary site as had been relayed to the applicants before the application was brought.
"The court was critical of the fact that the applicants, despite being advised of the City’s intentions, had nevertheless approached the court,” Plato said.