“OPENING THE ECONOMY“: NEW CASES ARISE FROM WESTERN CAPE WORKERS WHO WERE LEFT UNTESTED AFTER COVID19 EXPOSURE
Statement by Brett Herron, Secretary General for GOOD and Member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature.
13 May 2020
A chicken slaughter-house near Kalbaskraal in the Malmesbury area of the Western Cape has been reported to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition for allegedly flouting Covid-19 regulations.
Workers at the facility say they have not been tested for the virus despite several of their colleagues testing positive last week. Fearing for their lives after two more workers displayed symptoms this week, they stopped working – only for the company to replace them with casual workers.
The incident was reported by community workers to the GOOD Covid-19 corruption desk, and relayed to the DTIC yesterday. This morning, the Provincial Department of Health reportedly arrived with a mobile testing clinic (see attached photographs).
The virus has thus been afforded more than a week to spread through the workforce, to workers’ families and the broader community.
If this is what the DA-led province has in mind in its desire to “open up the economy” it is little wonder that cases are soaring, and the deaths in this province exceed those in all eight other provinces combined.
Ends…