South Africa Govt 'Hiding' Information On Coronavirus

The South Africa Government says it is keeping some information on coronavirus under wraps to avoid panic.

The admission was made by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko on Saturday after leading experts questioned why COVID-19 modelling data is being kept under wraps. She said:

We don’t want to put these models out to the public as if they are the gospel truth.

There is an element where we want to avoid panic in communities, and we’re also mindful of the stigma of the virus.

Mathematical modelling projected thousands more infections and deaths than South Africa has experienced to date.

As of Friday, 9 420 people in South Africa had been infected with COVID-19, and 186 have died.

Public accountability advocate Paul Hoffman said withholding the information from the public was unconstitutional. He said:

Is the public too stupid to know what’s going on? What the department needs to understand is that we live in a participatory democracy, and the constitution enjoins them to be open, accountable and responsible.

If they say models cannot be made public, they are in breach of the constitution on all three grounds.

More: TimesLive