Following rumours that Free State will be chosen to quarantine more than 150 South Africans once they have landed back from the coronavirus epicenter, the small rural community of Thaba Nchu in the Free State is fearful and angry.
News24 reported that the Black Mountain Hotel, perched on a mountain at the end of a long, isolated road in Groot Hoek, has allegedly been inspected by government for this purpose.
Should these rumours be true, and the Black Mountain Hotel has indeed been selected to quarantine South Africans evacuating Wuhan, some say there will be an uproar in the community News24 reports.
News24 understands that government has already inspected Black Mountain Reserve, but according Popo Maja, spokesperson for the Department of Health, 83 other sites in South Africa have also been inspected and no final decision has been made on the location for quarantine.
The hotel’s general manager, Peter Leonard, told the publication that he did not know anything about rumours that the hotel is a possible site for quarantine, and is unsure of whether government inspected the place.
He, however, said that nothing was signed.
According to Jacaranda FM Cosatu Secretary in the Free State, Monyatso Mahlatsi, says the union received information that Thaba Nchu has been chosen as the area for quarantine.
“After receiving the information neither the provincial government nor the institution could confirm that it is actually true.
“They referred us to the military and we walked into a brick wall, and we couldn’t confirm that it is true,” says Mahlatsi.
He adds the military failed to confirm reports that the black Mountain Leisure and Conference Hotel will be used by to quarantine the South Africans for 21 days.
Mahlatsi says the provincial structures of the union are worried that coronavirus might spread among the general public in the province.
He adds the province decided to repatriate the South Africans into the area without proper consolation with provincial leadership structures.
