After fighting for his life, Covid survivor loses twin to virus
MARIANNRIDGE ward councillor Reginald Cloete said he was struggling to cope with the death of his twin sister to Covid-19.
Cloete, who spent almost two weeks battling Covid-19 last year, lost his twin sister to the disease in January.
Cloete, 49, was admitted to hospital in July last year after being unable to breathe on his own, and spent 13 days in the ICU on a ventilator.
Cloete said that while he had recovered, his family were dealt a severe blow with the death of his sister, Ree Cloete, due to Covid-19 in January.
“I am trying to cope with her death, although it’s hard because we were twins and we had a strong connection,” he said.
Cloete strongly believes that health officials need to monitor hospitals, especially government hospitals, very closely.
He also called on the government to be stricter with the enforcement of safety regulations and punish those who did not adhere to them.
Regarding his health, Cloete said he was very fortunate to have survived Covid-19.
However, he said he was left with bruises and was now on chronic medication for his blood pressure and glaucoma.
“I do have fears of contracting the virus again because having had Covid-19 before does not make me immune,” he said. on all these matters. “It is a disgrace, it is a blight on media freedom, it is a challenge and undermining our Constitution and freedom of press. I am glad Independent Media’s investigation unit has been able to expose this. We will release a statement within the next week on this repeated exposure by politicians against our group.”
However, Sanef spokesperson Hopewell Hadebe denied that the letter sent to the PIC was a move to lobby the asset manager to execute a hostile takeover of Independent Media.
“We just want Independent Media to return to the Press Council structure. We hope that the PIC will consider our plea to convince Sekunjalo, as the major shareholder, to return the media house to the Press Council structure in order to give it some form of protection from other formations,” he said.
Hadebe also denied claims that the NGO’s move was influenced or motivated by any political structures.
“We are hoping that the PIC will hear us out, and if not we will go back to the drawing board,” he said.