Zweli Mkhize Minister of health

Score:

Medical doctor Zweli Mkhize has stepped up during the pandemic. He’s probably been the clearest in communicating the effects of Covid-19, and has kept the nation updated on the numbers and the overall health response. He’s crisscrossed SA, visiting provinces and hotspots to monitor the official response.

Mkhize received the highest score from FM’S panel of analysts. Booysen says he acted with “reassuring calmness [and] dignity”. She attributes the government’s relative medical success in handling the pandemic to him, and says this will boost his political career.

Calland echoes this, saying Mkhize generally had a “good war” and inspired confidence and trust, remaining calm under pressure.

Sarakinsky and Fikeni agree that Mkhize communicated clearly. “He was brutally honest and had a good grasp of the health and medical issues involved,” Fikeni says.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing. For example, the accuracy of the official Covid-19 numbers has been questioned, especially the death rate. Mkhize has also been criticised for not making public the scientific reports of the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19 that helped guide the government’s response.

At first he refused to make the advisories public, because he said they didn’t represent government’s final position. Nonetheless, some leaked into the public domain. Then, late last month, Mkhize published the more than 70 advisories, including those dealing with controversial issues such as the load capacity for taxis.

Mkhize has also bumped heads with public sector health unions, which are threatening to strike because of a lack of personal protective equipment.

February says Mkhize erred in his “very delayed release” of the science behind some decisions. He has, however, been indefatigable, and has a deep understanding of what needs to be done to combat the pandemic.

“In a pandemic we do not ask our government to be perfect, but we do ask that they work as hard as they can, with integrity and for all our benefit. Mkhize has done so,” February says.

Calland also highlights the issue about the advisories, saying it created uncertainty about both policy and the underlying evidentiary assumptions, as well as a sense that the government was being unduly secretive.

Mathekga, who is more cynical, says: “The best things the department came out with are social distancing rules and the wearing of masks. Other than that, the management of Covid-19 was a shambles.”