DA against Gordhan’s Covid deployment

Noxolo Sibiya

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has been deployed to Tshwane to help with the fight against Covid-19.

This is in line with the government’s district development model, which involved the deployment of ministers and deputy ministers to municipalities across the country.

With Tshwane being the epicentre of the virus, the district was identified as one of the Covid-19 hotspot areas.

Head administrator Mpho Nawa said Gordhan’s vast experience would not only help the metro in its fight against the pandemic, but would also assist in other aspects where there are weaknesses.

“Minister Gordhan has had a stellar career in the public service, firstly as the most enterprising and successful governor of the SA Revenue Service (Sars), under whose leadership revenue collection was at its maximum and as the minister of both finance and Cogta,” said Nawa.

Nawa said the team of administrators and senior management at the metro have already had two meetings with Gordhan to put Tshwane on the “right footing”.

“He has provided cogent guidance on what needs to be done to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus,” Nawa said.

Gordhan’s deployment was met with criticism from the Democratic Alliance (DA), which questioned his role. DA Cogta spokesperson Cilliers

Brink said it was clear the Gauteng government was “floundering in its Covid-19 response”, and that it was unclear how Gordhan would contribute in Tshwane – or anywhere else.

“Will Gordhan, for example, assume some of the powers of the province’s administrator in Tshwane, or will he just check up on the city’s Covid-19 response?” he asked.

“Each sphere of government must fulfil its obligations. When they fail, government must invoke either Section 100 of the constitution (for provinces) or Section 139 (for municipalities).”

Tshwane has developed and implemented a ward-based Covid-19 outreach screening and testing campaign which targeted hotspots.

The campaign is rolled out on

Fridays and was currently focused on shopping centres.

Nawa said thousands of people had been screened and tested in a concerted bid to isolate those that were positive from those who were negative.

He said such interventions were the reason Tshwane had the least number of infections out of all metros in Gauteng.

“We would like to appeal to our communities to observe the lockdown regulations and stop having house parties and exceeding the number of mourners permitted at funerals.

“We can defeat this killer virus if we behave accordingly. Let’s continue to wear face masks, sanitise, wash our hands with soap and water and observe physical distancing to contain the spread of the virus.”