RUSTENBURG - North West Premier Job Mokgoro and Public Works MEC Oageng Molapisi has tested positive for Covid-19, the provincial government said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Vuyisile Ngesi said Mokgoro told a virtual special provincial executive council (exco) meeting that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was in self-isolation.
He took the test on Monday after the death of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs MEC Gordon Kegakilwe and received his results on Tuesday, confirming that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Ngesi said Mokgoro was not incapacitated and could carry out his duties. He presented just one symptom, a cough.
"The premier will therefore continue to discharge his duties albeit remotely and has instructed members of the premier’s support staff who have worked with him closely in the last two weeks to test while taking the necessary precautions," Ngesi said in a statement.
The provincial Department of Health has already begun with contact tracing in this regard.
Molapisi was also in self-isolation.
"He is not incapacitated to discharge his duties, too, and actively participated in the virtual special exco meeting concluded on Tuesday," Ngesi said.
He said at the meeting the exco resolved to write to President Cyril Ramaphosa to request that he declare Kegakilwe’s funeral a provincial official funeral category 1, in line with the government’s funerals policy as well as the Covid-19 guidelines that regulate how funerals are to be conducted during lockdown.
The date and venue of the funeral would be made public once Ramaphosa responded, he said.
Kegakilwe died on Monday at a hospital in Klerksdorp due to a Covid-19-related illness.
In a statement, Mokgoro said Kegakilwe was admitted to a private hospital in Vryburg on Sunday with Covid-19 pneumonia and was transferred to Klerksdorp, where he died after suffering a cardiac arrest.