Durban - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted a formal complaint to the Public Protector (view here) alleging the abuse of executive authority by KZN Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu as a result of undue delays in releasing up-to-date Covid-19 information in the province.
The complaint was submitted last Friday in terms of Section 6(4)(iii) of the Public Protector Act (Act 23 of 1994).
DA health spokesperson Dr Rishigen Viranna said the complaint also comes after a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) submission by his party on 30 April, calling for the release of daily, municipality-specific Covid-19 data.
“The submission was fobbed off by the department with the suggestion that we submit a parliamentary question to get answers. The MEC already knows that parliamentary questions can take as long as 14 days to receive a reply, if not much longer, by which stage Covid-19 information would already be out-of-date and unhelpful to KZN’s communities and healthcare providers. This is supported by the fact that similar parliamentary questions regarding the department's Covid-19 preparedness one month ago, have still not received a reply,” Viranna said in a statement.
He said his party believes in patient confidentiality, which is why they called for the release of anonymised information in the PAIA, as is done in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
“Our province has massive knowledge when it comes to dealing with stigmatisation, as a result of the HIV/Aids pandemic. There have also been many scientific studies on this from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. We know that it is the failure to share information that leads to increased stigma and fear in communities. At this stage when we require the cooperation of people to disclose, self-isolate and protect others, sharing of this data will allow them to do so without community backlash,” he said.
A KZN Health Department spokesman could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing. This story will be changed to reflect the department's comment when they respond to the Daily News' questions.