Rustenburg’s Executive Mayor Councillor Mpho Khunou and Council Speaker, Councillor Sheila Mabale-Huma who were among the leadership of the Municipality to undergo Covid-19 testing have received their results, as negative.
The Municipality said in a statement that the tests were necessitated by the numerous test results which came out positive for numerous contacts the Executive Mayor and Council Speaker had interacted with, since the President declared a nation-wide lockdown in late March 2020.
The Municipality have on Thursday 25 June 2020, announced that two employees from the Speaker’s and Budget and Treasury offices were in self isolation after testing positive for the virus.
During the three months’ period, the Executive Mayor and Council Speaker were leading relief efforts for Covid-19, which included the establishment of a shelter for the homeless at Ben Marais Hall, receiving donations of clothes, blankets and mattresses from various mining houses, visiting various wards within the Municipality’s jurisdiction for Covid-19 awareness campaigns and oversight visits relating to effective service delivery at the height of the lockdown.
When reacting to the negative result of the Covid-19 test, the Executive Mayor said he was relieved that the wait is over.
I am glad that the test results are out and I have been cleared. Given that our City remains the Province’s epicenter for the pandemic it was necessary to undertake the test; after a number of people I had come into contact with tested positive for the virus.
Khunou firther said It would have been very wrong of him and his fellow Councillors not to be tested, as they have been working throughout the lockdown and have been carrying out a number of interventions in the City residents.
Members of the Mayoral C ommittee ( MMC) ’ s wards, interacting with our for Budget and Treasury Office C ouncillor Basebi Lekoro, MMC for Roads and Transport, Councillor , Lucky Kgaladi, MMC for Public Safety Concillor Victoria Makhaula have also received their results, and have tested negative for Covid of Covid– 19. The current tally 19 infections within the Municipality currently stands at 9.
Rustenburg is currently the epicentre of the virus in the Province with 1682 cases as at Thursday 25 June 2020.
With the numbers expected to keep on climbing as more and more sectors of the economy are gradually opened up, the public is once again urged to adhere to stringent Covid-19 measures.