MPs concerned about cost of quarantine hotels, current bill is over R28m
So far, 2,125 people have been quarantined for 14 days at 14 different hotels. The rates vary from R950 to R1,200 per day, depending on the hotel.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize outside the entrance to The Ranch Resort where the repatriated South Africans from Wuhan will be quarantined, 13 March 2020, Polokwane. Picture: Jacques Nelles
MPs are concerned about the high costs hotels are charging for being quarantine sites – more than R28 million so far.
The Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure and the Select Committee on Transport, Public Service and Administration, and Public Works and Infrastructure, met with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure on Monday.
So far, 2,125 people have been quarantined for 14 days at 14 different hotels. The rates vary from R950 to R1,200 per day, depending on the hotel. The total cost is R 28,677,600.
Seven of the hotels are in Johannesburg, three in Cape Town, two in Tshwane and one each in eThekweni and Ekurhuleni.
According to a joint statement from the committees’ chairpersons, Nolitha Ntobongwana and Kenneth Mmoiemang, the committees want the department to look at the high costs.
“[The committees] believe that private businesses should control the need to make maximum profit, especially during times of human suffering,” reads the statement.
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