Cape Town – While Covid-19 deaths continue to spike in the Western and Eastern Cape, government officials in the neighbouring provinces were embroiled in a blame game at the weekend over people moving between the two provinces, allegedly spreading the virus.
Covid-19 has claimed the lives of 194 people in the country, with
10 015 cases.
Last night, the Health Department said: “We note with concern that the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, combined, comprise 84% of the total new cases.”
Western Cape Transport MEC Bonginkozi Madikizela recently took to social media to accuse the Eastern Cape government of “building a Berlin Wall” between the two provinces.
This was after the Eastern Cape government complained of an “influx” of taxis from the Western Cape, charging that many were not adhering to lockdown regulations.
Madikizela said on Facebook: “To the Eastern Cape government, be careful what you wish for. Just do your job and stop moaning.
"When the Western Cape traffic officers catch someone from (the) Eastern Cape with drugs, an unroadworthy vehicle, overloaded or without licence, you will never hear us blaming you, we just do our job.
“You caught 56 people with Covid-19 positive cases from Western Cape, and we hear about conspiracy theories about the Western Cape deliberately sending positive people to Eastern Cape - utter nonsense,” he said.
“The Eastern Cape insists on testing all the people who are coming from the Western Cape, but not from Gauteng and KZN - why is that?
"This animosity that you are creating between these two provinces will come back to bite you, stop building a Berlin Wall between these two provinces and establish protocols to work better together.”
His statement came a day before a taxi driver, who had apparently tested positive for Covid-19 at the N2 Tsitsikamma roadblock in the Eastern Cape, was arrested and transported to a quarantine site in Cape Town.
He was stopped at a vehicle checkpoint on the R61 in Beaufort West with about seven passengers on Friday. The 35-year-old is now facing attempted murder charges after he had allegedly proceeded with the trip on May 7 despite knowing his status.
The Western Cape is the epicentre of Covid-19, with 5 307 confirmed cases and 102 deaths as of yesterday.
Eastern Cape Health MEC Sindiswa Gomba said yesterday that 137 people who travelled from the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape had tested positive for Covid-19.
She said this represented 57 more new cases of people who have tested positive of those who entered the Eastern Cape through Tsitsikamma and Aberdeen during the grace period for interprovincial travelling.
“This has contributed to the province’s number of confirmed cases being 1078 as of Saturday night. The majority of the new positive cases are in OR Tambo, Buffalo City Metro, Amathole and Graaff-Reinet.
"Teams are now tracing and tracking their contacts using the newly handed over 4x4 bakkies as those in Graaff-Reinet had also attended a funeral,” she said.
The Eastern Cape government dismissed Madikizela’s claims that only those coming from the Western Cape were being tested.
“Our law enforcement officers are working with health officials in each of our cross-province Covid-19 stations, even our cross district borders, Kei Bridge, a case in point.
“When such a large number of people, as 50-plus - have been caught, we have to account and questions were asked as to where they were coming from and they happened to be from the Western Cape,” said the Eastern
Cape Transport and Safety MEC’s
spokesperson, Unathi Binqose.
“We wish not to engage in any
public spat with our Western (Cape)
neighbours, nor would we like to
be drawn into a blame game. We all
have a common enemy as a country,
as is the case with the global
community, and that is Covid-19.
“As the province, we have a
responsibility to enforce the national
lockdown regulations as pronounced
by the National Command Council
without any fear or favour.
"And if, in
doing so, some choose to interpret
that as building a Berlin Wall, it’s
unfortunate,” Binqose said.
Asked for a response, Madikizela
said yesterday that his comments
were prompted by “irresponsible
and preposterous accusations that
this province is deliberately sending
people to the Eastern Cape in
order to infect the province with
coronavirus – that is really absurd”.
“I’ll be happy if you can tell
me at which other interprovincial
border of the Eastern Cape are
people subjected to the kind of
inconvenience and ill-treatment as
we have seen in Aberdeen?
“People who are going to funerals
are stopped, tested and forced to wait
for results for two days with corpses
in their vehicles. How would you feel
if that was your father, mother, sister,
brother or any other relative in those
coffins,” said Madikizela.