JOHANNESBURG - The DA has demanded an urgent intervention from the departments of health and public works to resolve what it called an untenable situation at a quarantine facility in Durban.
In a statement, the DA denounced the squalid conditions at the facility set aside for some 200 repatriated South Africans who were part of a group of employees on the Carnival Fascination ship which docked at the Durban harbour on Thursday.
DA MP Tim Brauteseth and MPL Martin Meyer, who toured the facility on Thursday night, found that the group was placed in dirty rooms with dead pigeons and cockroaches, with most of the facilities broken and rusted with no cleaning materials. Many of the group opted to sleep in the lobby rather than the rooms.
"The hotel’s air conditioning does not work, making the rooms saunas and there is no Wifi for guests to make contact with the outside world," the DA said.
To make matters worse, no health protocols were being applied at the facility, and members of the group were not screened and were free to roam in and out of the facility. The opposition party said there was no real food provided, forcing members of the group to leave the hotel to buy fast food.
"It is fundamentally clear to the DA that there was no planning at all with the designation of this site as a quarantine facility," the party said.
It called on health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize and public works minister Patricia De Lille to urgently intervene and remove the group to a safe and secure facility with proper quarantine protocols.