South Africa’s healthcare workers get an encouraging boost worth millions

15 Apr 2020

Things changed overnight in South Africa on 15 March, and it won’t be the last time it does. Daily Maverick’s Daily Digest will provide the essential bits of information about Covid-19 in South Africa each day. Please do read on to understand these issues more deeply.

Covid-19 in South Africa
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In addition to having no income during the lockdown, waste pickers in Ekurhuleni cannot directly access the donations that have been collected to support them. The City of Ekurhuleni launched the “central food bank” on Tuesday 13 April where all donated food parcels will be collected and then distributed.

However, many waste pickers fear that they will be the targets of xenophobia or will be overlooked as many do not have an ID. In addition, the African Reclaimers Organisation had to hand over 400 food parcels to the city which they intended to deliver to their members themselves. As Ayanda Mthethwa reports, none of the parcels has been received.

In the Eastern Cape, Sonke Gender Justice has called on the government to release qualifying prisoners in light of two Eastern Cape prisons confirming Covid-19 infections.

As of Tuesday 14 April, there were 78 cases confirmed at the East London Correctional Centre and one at St Albans prison outside Port Elizabeth. As Estelle Ellis writes, human rights bodies are concerned that prisoners are not receiving adequate protection and will suffer because they cannot see family, friends or their legal representatives.

In the Western Cape, two police officers tested positive for Covid-19 this week. The police station in Athlone, Cape Town, and the station in Hermanus were both temporarily closed while the spaces were decontaminated. However, police services continued to operate.

Meanwhile, as Vincent Cruywagen reports, there was a spate of looting in the Greater Cape Town area and anger simmered in Mitchells Plain after rumoured food parcels didn’t arrive.

Healthcare workers in the public sector have received support running into many, many millions. In just two weeks, companies in South Africa have released personal protective equipment worth R400-million to the national health sector.

Almost one million sterile gloves, 20,000 face shields, 1.12 million N95 masks, six million surgical masks for healthcare workers, 8.5 million surgical masks for patients and 200 ventilators have been acquired.

The call for this stock to be released was made by Business for South Africa and has been paid for by the Solidarity Find, Motsepe Foundation, SPIRE and Naspers. And, as Karen Schimke writes, there’s more funding on the way.

A national project which is not getting any more funding is SAA. The Department of Public Enterprises has rejected a request by the airline’s business rescue practitioners for another R10-billion to restart operations once the lockdown is lifted. As Ray Mahlaka writes, this comes just as Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said on 14 April that SAA could be closed.

Meanwhile, the police blocked mineworkers from returning to platinum operations around Rustenburg on 15 April. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, trade unions and the Minerals Council South Africa had agreed that operations would restart and that workers would be asked to return. However, as Ed Stoddard writes, those returning to gold mining operations in western Gauteng were not stopped. DM

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