SIU Warned Government Against Storing R23m Worth of PPE at Ashanti Hospital
- The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has come out to claim that they warned the provincial government against storing personal protection equipment at a Carltonville hospital
- The equipment, worth R23 million, was destroyed when a fire caught at the facility last week
- According to the SIU, their warning was delivered two months ago and ignored
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The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) has said that it issued a warning to the Gauteng government against storing Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) at the AngloGold Ashanti hospital in Carltonville.
The SIU put forward various risk factors that came with using the facility, including the fact that the building was not protected.
The PPE, worth R23 million, was destroyed in a fire that ravaged the facility on Thursday, 4 February.
According to the SABC, SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago believes that the fire could have been avoided if the provincial government had heeded their warning.
Kganyago went on to say that the SIU wrote to the Department of Health late last year to give them the warning about the dangers of their methods of storage, especially since the facility was not even guarded.
“They’ve got a lot of equipment there and ultimately the fire happened two months after we warned them."
Meanwhile, Briefly.co.za previously reported on guidance released by legal firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, which has revealed how Covid-19 has changed the working environment in South Africa.
The legal guidance from the law firm reveals that employers can legally dismiss employees who refuse to take the Covid-19 vaccine.
Source: Original
However, it would be up to employers if they want to adopt this policy and would depend on how they view their employees' welfare, according to The South African.
Employers could argue that in order to have a working environment that is safe, certain measures would need to be taken in regards to Covid-19, one of these might be a mandatory vaccination policy.
The only cases where a mandatory vaccine policy could not be used to dismiss someone who refuses to take the vaccine could be due to disability or condition that prevents them from taking the vaccine according to Cape Talk.
An employee could argue on religious grounds but this is not clear if it would work in South Africa. An employee could challenge the dismissal citing discrimination. In all cases, a suitable alternative would need to be considered first. Earlier, Briefly.co.za reported that global statistics show that Mzansi is set for national inoculation by mid-2022.
According to a map showing global vaccine timeline, South Africa is expected to have vaccinated 60% to 70% of their adult population against the coronavirus by mid-2022.
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Source: Briefly News
