Fear stalks Mdantsane court

Fear is spreading at the Mdantsane magistrate’s court as Covid-19 infection figures surge in the Eastern Cape.

Six employees including a magistrate at the court, who spoke to the Dispatch on condition of anonymity, believe court managers are not admitting to a surge in positive cases. They worry that the whole building does not get closed for fumigation, and instead cleaners are sent to specific affected areas.

On Wednesday the employees said people in the criminal court, A court and some offices, including where bail applications are paid, had tested positive.

Contacted for comment, court manager Melanie Elliot said she was not allowed to speak to the press and referred the Dispatch to national justice spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, but his cellphone was on voicemail on Wednesday. Elliot promised to forward questions to Phiri’s office but no response had been received by print deadline on Thursday.

A clerk said: “We have a big problem here and management keeps pretending like nothing is happening while people keep getting infected with Covid. The criminal court has positive cases that we have not been told about. We only hear from people who are in isolation or quarantine that they have contracted the virus.”

Another clerk questioned workplace procedures. “Why doesn’t the department test us? Many people have complained in vain.”

The clerk added: “One of the offices which has a positive case is where bail fees are paid. That’s where we get receipts and that’s where people who pay bail are being assisted as we speak.

“A lawyer at A court also tested positive on Tuesday but management doesn’t want to close and fumigate the building, even if just for two hours.”

A cleaner said whenever a colleague tested positive “it’s business as usual”. “You’ll never find anything like we’ve seen in other departments where they call in people to fumigate. They [management] make us cleaners clean that particular office or court that has Covid-19, and it ’ s then closed for two days.”

A magistrate said: “I work in court, and many people here are contracting Covid-19. The building has not been fumigated by health officials and we are not told about positive cases so that we can know whether we are contacts or not. We are just left to work. And this started during the [first] wave and now it is continuing, leaving us exposed, and we are going to die because of this.”

An interpreter said: “Management is hiding positive cases. When we ask who tested positive they claim not to have any information.”

Nehawu regional secretary Zwelakhe Tywala said it seemed government departments had learnt nothing from the first wave of Covid-19.