Community calls on MEC to close schools

THE TSANTSABANE community has called on the Northern Cape MEC for Education, Mac Jack, to close schools in the area after 43 employees from Lomoteng Mine reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.

The community has demanded that the department close the schools in the area, as they did in the Pixley ka Seme District, where schools remained closed due to the high number of Covid-19 cases.

According to the figures from the Department of Health on Wednesday evening, there were 64 positive cases in the Pixley ka Seme District and 73 in the ZF Mgcawu District.

Forty-nine of the cases in ZF Mgcawu were in the Tsantsabane municipal area, which is the highest number of cases in any one municipality in the Northern Cape.

Calls have been made for movement to be prohibited in and out of the Tsantsabane municipal area, while others have asked that the SANDF be dispatched to the area to ensure that those people awaiting their test results are prohibited from moving around.

The Northern Cape Department of Education said yesterday that a decision still had to be made on whether schools in the area would be closed.

Department spokesperson Lehuma Ntuane said that Covid-19 was the “competence” of the Department of Health and the Provjoint Command Council, which were expected to be monitoring the development of new cases of the virus.

According to Ntuane, attention has shifted to the Tsantsabane municipal area, which is currently the epicentre for Covid-19 infections in the Province.

“In terms of the schools, we make decisions on whether to open schools or not based on the advice of the Health Department and the Command Council. We will be engaging the Department of Health to discuss these matters and pave the way forward,” said Ntuane.