Eastern Cape MEC Xolile Nqatha corrupt individuals

Eastern Cape Cogta MEC Xolile Nqatha. (Photo by Gallo Images / Beeld / Werner Hills)

Stop ‘stressful’ corruption inquiries into quarantined officials, says MEC

EC Cogta MEC Xolile Nqatha has made a bizarre case for corrupt officials diagnosed with COVID-19.

Eastern Cape MEC Xolile Nqatha corrupt individuals

Eastern Cape Cogta MEC Xolile Nqatha. (Photo by Gallo Images / Beeld / Werner Hills)

The Eastern Cape’s Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC, Xolile Nqatha has urged the African National Congress (ANC) to suspend all disciplinary action held against those accused of corruption amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The province is mourning the death of Buffalo City Municipality speaker Alfred Mtsi, who succumbed to complications related to coronavirus last week.

Eastern Cape MEC makes case for those under investigation for corruption

A memorial service was held in his honour, where Nqatha took to the podium to make the bizarre call to the ruling party.

“The challenges of this coronavirus do not require a stressed cadreship, for that weakens the immune system.” he said.

“If you’re contemplating to discipline anyone who must be held accountable for wrongdoing… if that person is in quarantine because he is ill, don’t discipline that person. It’s un-ANC, it’s not comradely to treat each other that way. It’s against the spirit of comrade Mtsi. 

“Let’s pay tribute to him by treating each other better and be comradely to one another.

“You take action against a person who is quarantined – that person is stressed, his immune system cannot be able to fight the virus, that person dies, then I come here and cry crocodile tears.”

Xolani Nqatha, Eastern Cape Cogta MEC

Foot-in-mouth pandemic in the province 

The statement made by Nqatha comes just as another Eastern Cape MEC was under fire for making an equally jaw-dropping remark.

Nqatha’s health counterpart, the under-fire Sindiswa Gomba, once again made headlines for unflattering reasons.

This was in the wake of the scooter ambulance controversy, which has engulfed the provinces health department.

Gomba linked the weakness of the health system to the “design of the apartheid system”.

“The pandemic came unexpectedly and presented itself in a new dynamic,” she said.

“It has also exposed the weaknesses of our health system, and that’s all down to the design of apartheid. Our people must be dragged in wheelbarrows to access health services.”

Sindiswa Gomba, Eastern Cape health MEC

The Eastern Cape is among the provinces with the highest COVID-19 caseloads, with over 50 000 confirmed cases, which accounts for 18% of South Africa’s total infections.

It terms of deaths, it is tied with Gauteng at 726 fatalities – second only to the Western Cape, which has a death toll of over 2 000.