DA calls on Ramaphosa to make ‘tough decisions’ amid reports of scientific rebellion among advisers

MP Siviwe Gwarube said it was now clear that the government was reluctant to allow scientific findings to guide the country between the various levels of its lockdown strategy in order to save lives and livelihoods.

“While the health response has been commendable over the past seven weeks and the DA has supported the various interventions, we can no longer pledge support to a strategy that has no scientific basis.

“Ignoring expert advice which calls for responsible reopening of the economy and industry while capacitating the health system in order to deal with the inevitable spike in infections is wholly irresponsible and tantamount to gambling with the lives of South Africans who have pledged their support to government and their response to Covid-19.”

Gwarube said the fact that half of the four group leaders within the MAC now no longer supported the government’s risk-adjusted lockdown strategy and how it was being implemented through regulations was indicative that something had gone seriously wrong.

“It is now clear that there is a chasm between what is being discovered and produced by scientists and experts and the strategy the South African government has taken.

“This is why the DA has repeatedly called for transparency in the data that the South African government is looking at in order to decide on the Covid-19 related responses. The secrecy that has characterised the issue of data and modelling is now being exacerbated by the advisers who have now broken rank.”

He said Mkhize could no longer simply ask for blind support of his strategy when the team he leads was coming undone at the seams.

“He must now urgently take the nation into his confidence and explain the points of disagreement within his team; his submission to the National Command Council on dealing with the impending spike in infections; the data and modelling they are looking at in order to make health interventions and, most importantly, health system capacity to handle infections across the country. We need to understand – per sub-district – bed capacity, ventilator availability and healthcare workers’ capacity and skills set.

“We no longer can run away from this pandemic. We must face it head-on and ensure that the vulnerable to the illness, those who are unable to self-isolate and the general South African public are protected. Work must now be done to capacitate industries to be able to implement stringent health protocols for those that would be coming back to work.”

He argued that President Cyril Ramaphosa and his team could no longer avoid making “the tough and necessary decisions” as “millions of lives and livelihoods are now hanging in the balance”.

(Edited by Charles Cilliers)

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