African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) president Reverend Kenneth Meshoe has responded to an article by the Sunday Independent which stated that he denied testing positive for Covid-19. Here is Meshoe's statement in full:
I wish to reject some assertions made by Mr Kenneth Mokgatlhe in the Sunday Independent Newspaper (17 May 2020). The article is titled “ ACDP leader still trying to shake off Covid-19 stigma after false positive test claims”.
The main focus of the interview that I had with Mr Mokgatlhe was about the incorrect announcement by TV channel Newzroom Afrika that I was positive – this announcement being broadcast a number of days before I had even been tested for Covid-19.
Mr Mokgatlhe blatantly lied when he wrote that I denied testing positive for Covid-19. I in fact did not deny that the result of the test by the Department of Health came out positive. I also did not accuse the Department of Health of using me as a guinea pig and sacrificial lamb in the politicization of the pandemic, as he asserts.
It is also not true that I accused journalists of spreading fake news. I stated to him that Newzroom Afrika had reported fake news as I had - at the time of the announcement by them - not even been tested.
I told Mr Mokgatlhe that a man who claimed to be connected to top politicians had told me that I was used as a sacrificial lamb to break the resistance of black people who refused to be screened and tested as they believed Covid-19 to be a Chinese disease, and not a disease for Africans.
The ACDP Deputy President Wayne Thring correctly announced in a statement, after I had been tested by the Department of Health, that my test result came back positive. This led to me making a public statement that I would go re-test at a private medical laboratory.
It is quite disingenuous for Mr Mokgatlhe to say that I was “only coming out with these claims almost two months after testing”. Mr Mokgatlhe only came to me last week. Had he interviewed me two months ago, I would have also told him that I planned to re-test in a private medical laboratory.