Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and her deputy Kholeka Gcaleka will inspect Gauteng hospitals this week, notes a News24 report. Mkhwebane and Gcaleka were scheduled to visit Lillian Ngoyi and Chris Hani Baragwanath in Soweto, Charlotte Maxeke Academic in Johannesburg, and Jubilee and George Mukhari hospitals in Hammanskraal and Ga-Rankuwa respectively, spokesperson Oupa Segalwe said.
They would also be joined by investigators from the Gauteng office to examine the infrastructure that had been developed, specifically for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Segalwe said Mkhwebane and Gcaleka would also look closely at the capacity of the facilities and to establish if the facilities were coping with demand for services as well as whether frontline workers had sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE).
“In recent weeks, the provincial government's efforts to contain the spread of the virus have been marred by allegations of tender irregularities in respect of the procurement of PPE. This prompted the Gauteng office of the Public Protector to launch an own-initiative investigation into the matter,” Segalwe said.
[link url="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/mkhwebane-to-inspect-gauteng-hospitals-amid-claims-of-covid-19-tender-irregularities-20200818"]Full News24 report[/link]