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The union was reacting to the report of the Special Investigation Unit on the acquisition of PPE COVID-19.
Health workers taking off their PPE at the Nasrec Field Hospital in Johannesburg. Image: Abigail Javier / Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG – The Democratic Nursing Organization of South Africa (Denosa) said on Saturday that some deaths of its members can be directly attributed to poor personal protective equipment (PPE).
The union was reacting to the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) report on the acquisition of PPE COVID-19.
The SIU found that the processes were mocked in the awarding of bids.
READ MORE: Denosa vows to bring criminal charges against contaminated companies in SIU’s PPE investigation
Approximately R30.7 billion was spent on PPE and more than R13 billion of that is subject to investigations.
SIU’s investigation focused on tenders awarded between April and November after numerous complaints.
The investigation found that while the national disaster was only declared in mid-March, some service providers only registered in February, making it impossible for them to have built a track record in such a short time.
Some delivered substandard PPE and Denosa’s Cassim Lekhoathi now said the deaths of more than 430 healthcare workers could be related to the quality of protective equipment.
“We believe these masks could have contributed to the exposure of our members, some of which resulted in loss of life.”
At this stage, the SIU is investigating more than 1,500 contracts with an estimated value of almost R7 billion and Gauteng has the highest number of corruption complaints.
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