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Cape Town – A total of 1,913 new Covid-19-related cases have been identified in the country, and the cumulative number of detected cases has risen to 685,155, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday.
There have been 145 more deaths related to Covid-19: 1 from the Eastern Cape, 11 from the Free State, 42 from KwaZulu Natal, 41 from Gauteng, 24 from Limpopo, 11 from Mpumalanga, 7 from the Northern Cape and 8 from the Western Cape, Mkhize said. . This brings the total number of deaths to 17,248.
“Our recoveries are now at 618,127, which translates to a 90% recovery rate,” Mkhize said.
The cumulative number of tests performed to date is 4,318,514, with 23,583 new tests performed since the last report.
Meanwhile, at least one of the 40 Gauteng companies linked to the Covid-19 PPE corruption was unable to pay its employees after its bank account was frozen.
This came up at the Special Court hearing in South Gauteng High Court, where the companies involved were expected to argue why the court’s earlier decision to freeze their bank accounts should not be final.
On August 21, the South African Special Court received an interim order that froze some R38.7 million in various accounts of 40 Gauteng-based contractors who were involved in supplying PPE to the provincial government at the height of the pandemic.
These accounts included those belonging to Ledla Structural Development, Royal Bhaca Projects and Mediwaste, companies at the center of the unfolding PPE scandal.
Royal Bhaca Projects is owned by Madzikane II Thandisizwe Diko, who is married to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko. She is on special leave.
The order also barred the Government Employees Pension Fund from handing over pension money and benefits to the former chief financial officer of the Gauteng Health Department, Mantsu Kabelo Lehloenya, who allegedly signed irregular PPE contracts worth more than R2bn.
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