Western Cape in urgent need of help

POLITICS aside, the Western Cape, South Africa’s Covid-19 epicentre, is in trouble and needs urgent help.

Of the 82 deaths across the country on Tuesday, 61 were from the Western Cape with 34 819 infections, according to the Health Department.

The province accounts for more than 66% of the country’s infections.

These may be numbers, but behind the statistics are wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Their lives must be protected at all costs. The Western Cape has also contributed to its neighbouring Eastern Cape’s spike in infections.

The ugly side of politics has, however, again reared its head this week.

Statements by the DA’s leadership in the province rejecting the reported intervention by national ministers are worrying, especially as the number of infections and deaths climb daily.

Only two days after Ramaphosa’s visit to assess the province’s readiness for the peak of the pandemic, DA leader Bonginkosi Madikizela, in his statement, initially concedes that “the Western Cape government and other spheres of government will definitely need assistance from the national government to fight this pandemic.”

This quickly takes a turn based on a report on the deployment of national ministers to the province, which Madikizela found “puzzling”.

“I honestly don’t understand what role they are expected to play in fighting the spread of the virus. I’ll ask the premier to get more clarity about this. What we need is the deployment of more health-care professionals. There’s absolutely no need for these ministers to be deployed in the Western Cape when they have so much responsibility across the country.”

As the country continues to grapple with the pandemic, the Western Cape should rightly be a priority.

The sooner it accepts that it is not a country on its own, the better.

This virus, which has infected more than 50 000 South Africans and killed more than 1 000, knows no politics, race or gender.

All the urgent assistance the Western Cape receives, wherever it comes from, should be welcomed with open arms. We are all in this war together.