South Africans in quarantine at the St. George’s Hotel say they are being kept under quarantine against their will

A group of South Africans in quarantine at the St. George’s Hotel, south of Pretoria, says they lost thousands of rands as they were misled by the Department of Health. They have accused authorities of keeping them under quarantine against their will. This after they were allegedly given an undertaking that if they pay for their own COVID-19 test and the results return negative, they would be allowed to leave before the 14-day normal quarantine lapses.

“For me it’s about seeing my dad for the last time. I don’t see how it can be fair if we have the approval, why can’t they release us. It’s just not fair to me,” that was Larissa Myburg’s plea when she came back to the country.

Her father died a few hours after she made the plea. She and her fiance, PJ Smit flew from Dubai when they heard her dad was on his death bed. They entered quarantine at the St. George’s Hotel, together with more than 150 other South Africans who flew from India and America.

They then paid for COVID-19 private tests to enable them to leave before two weeks ended, should they test negative.

Brandon Majozi was part of a group that flew from India on June 17. “Out of the 75 people who came from India there are only two people left. Everyone was released. We all have our release forms given to us, then this morning they want to back-track on the release forms,” he says.

Majozi together with Myburg and others were promised that they would leave on Wednesday, but police stopped them in their tracks.

“Yesterday afternoon they were reprimanded for allowing people to be released. The reason being is that they are getting people from the seventh day onwards that are testing negative and being released only to be found afterward to be positive. So a decision was taken, that is going to be scrapped and they will have to sit the entire 14 day period,” a policeman from the local police station explained the situation to them in a WhatApp recording made from inside the hotel.

In other news – SASSA has announced payment date changes for July

Beneficiaries of pension and disability grants will be paid from 3 July and all other grants from 6 July. Read more

Source: IOL