Sister Makhotso, a nurse at Albertina Sisulu Clinic, was accused for spreading fake news. This was after she leaked an audio file in a community group chat. The audio file detailed the COVID-19 outbreak at Albertina Sisulu Clinic in Zone 11, Sebokeng.
“I am accused of spreading fake news, that the virus came with a patient who tested positive on Wednesday, 17 June 2020, when in fact the clinic staff had the virus long before that. One of our staff members tested positive from the previous month” said Sister Makhotso.
“It looks like our facility manager and her senior management did not want us to talk to the public about these incidents” said Sister Makhotso “In fact, they did not want to close the clinic for disinfection. That is why we were told not to speak about these incidents,” she said.
After the incident was leaked to the public, the clinic was forced to close on Wednesday 17 June 2020, after the local ward councillor intervened. The clinic was disinfected the following day and patients were turned away.
Makhotso is now forced to stay away from work as others have returned. Without knowing the reasons why “I was not called to come back to work, while I have not yet seen the results of the COVID-19 test, I asked my facility manager if other staff members had seen theirs. She did not respond on the COVID-19 test results but said all staff members returned to work on 22 June 2020,” said Makhotso.
Makhotso is now looking for legal advice and in need of legal representatives as her situation is being treated differently from her colleagues due to the fact that she leaked an audio file which was deemed fake news.
Karibu! contacted the command centre. The command centre said it had called both the local councillor and Sister Makhotso to get to the bottom of the issue. Karibu! is aware of the report that fumigation took place in the clinic after intervention of the command centre.
This article was submitted on 22 June 2020. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
