Oscar clears MEC, blames red tape
● Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has given health MEC Sindiswa Gomba a glowing performance review, saying her successes have been shadowed by “few incidents” that attracted backlash on social media.
Mabuyane told the Sunday Times that the public criticism of Gomba was unfair as her department is on par with other provinces in fighting Covid-19.
This explains why Mabuyane, despite pressure from the public and within his own party, has refused to fire Gomba.
Gomba has been under the microscope following a number of blunders:
● A failed plan to spend R10m on scooters that were unsuitable to transport patients;
● Her utterances during a meeting with health minister Zweli Mkhize suggesting she was fed up; and
● Not reporting for three weeks deaths in Nelson Mandela Bay public hospitals.
“She has tried her level best,” said Mabuyane.
“The dedication that the MEC has shown in that space is a very commendable one. I could say, so far so good.
“Sometimes criticism levelled against her is very much unfair … is personal. People can give you the benefit of doubt at times, but I know we don’t want to gamble with people’s lives and we must be careful with that. But she has been a very dedicated, loyal servant of the people of the Eastern Cape. She’s been crisscrossing this province, risking her life trying to save the lives of the people of the Eastern Cape.”
He denied keeping on Gomba and transport MEC Weziwe Tikana for fear of losing his grip on the ANC provincial executive.
Tikana has been accused of corruption.
Mabuyane said the province’s 84% Covid recovery rate, less than 2% fatality rate and a reduced infection rate were attributed to Gomba and her team.
“We are working and so is the MEC. I had a discussion with the minister [Mkhize] and the minister felt that she needs a lot of support. We have covered a lot of ground — an 84% recovery rate is not a fluke. It’s not something that just happens. It’s as a result of a thorough work that has been done by our frontline workers and by her.”
Mabuyane blamed the health department’s bureaucracy for shortcomings. He said it had been “sluggish” in implementing the government’s decisions, frustrating Gomba and superintendent general Dr Thobile Mbengashe.
He said a project management unit, led by Dr Sibongile Zungu, had brought stability.
“The system is stabilising. When we started, the system was feeling the shock of this. Everyone was showing anxiety and the frontline was scared of the virus. That’s the reasons we asked for soldiers to come in. We had time to beef up our team and bring this fortitude you need to fight this virus.”
He said the infection rate was down from about 3,000 a day to below 2,000, but expected it to peak this month. To prepare, the province was setting up a 3,000-bed field hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay in partnership with Volkswagen.
It has 1,400 beds and by completion will have about 3,300 — 700 short of the planned 4,000. But there is not enough staff. There were plans to convert some buildings into hospitals, including the Mthatha airport hangar. Technology company Siemens is setting up a 100-bed field hospital near Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in East London.
“We are handling things better now,” said Mabuyane. “The system now has been calibrated. We are slowly getting there, but slowly.” The province will soon reach 80,000 Covid cases. Mabuyane said funerals had been the biggest cause of infections while the rest of the country was in lockdown.
“In the Eastern Cape we never had level 5, level 4, where at some point there was a literal lockdown. Even at that time, in the Eastern Cape you still had long queues of taxis bringing mortal remains from Cape Town and Johannesburg every week, and long queues of cars driving into the Eastern Cape.
“Because of underdevelopment in the province, our people must leave rural areas and go to town because there is nowhere they can get social security grants to buy food. Towns are small, Lusikisiki, Ngcobo are small [which led to overcrowding]. That has been unfortunate,” he said.