The Democratic Alliance (DA) made an announcement that they lay criminal charges against the man who claimed in a video that Covid-19 testing kits were possibly contaminated.
“The DA has been made aware of a video that is being circulated by a Cape Town man alleging that the screening equipment that will be used by the community health workers in various communities are contaminated and will infect people with Covid-19,” said DA MP Siviwe Gwarube.
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Gwarube said the DA laid charges against the man this morning for his inaccurate, misleading and harmful comments.
They said he breached a law against the Covid-19 Disaster Management Regulation 11 (5) which prohibits and criminalises the spread of fake news pertaining to efforts of combating this pandemic.
“The regulations are clear that people who spread fake news can be jailed for about six months,” he said.
He said the action to lay criminal charges was meant to send a strong message to South Africans that the spreading of fake news would not be tolerated.
The mass community screening, which is being rolled out in various parts of South Africa today, is an important step towards understanding the true extent and reach of our local transmissions,” the MP said.
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Gwarube said the department of health needed to reach people where they were in order to screen them and refer them to the nearest health facility for full testing.
“It is not true that the community health workers will use swabs or draw blood. Their work is to screen those South Africans who may be showing symptoms and to bring the services closer to where they are.
Mass screening will also guide on whether people are able to self-isolate and whether they need to be isolated in government-provided facilities in order to stop the further spread of Covid-19,” he said.
