Sassa office in Lady Frere closes after employee tests positive for Covid-19

The South African Security Agency office in Lady Frere, Eastern Cape, has been closed after one of the staff members tested positive for Covid-19.

The employees said they received a message from their WhatsApp work chat group  on Tuesday morning.

The message read: “Cdes [sic] I would also announce the sad news that there is another outbreak at Lady Frere where another lady tested positive and the office is closed.”

Sassa spokesperson Reverend Luzuko Qina confirmed that the office has been closed.

“As it is standard practice on instances of this nature, the Lady Frere office is closed after one of the officials tested positive of Covid-19. The office will be sanitised and all staff will undergo testing,” Qina said.

This comes a day after a Sassa employee from the Zwide office in Port Elizabeth died after she had tested positive for Covid-19.

One of the employees said they feared for their safety as 29 of their colleagues had allegedly tested positive for Covid-19 from the Zwide office.

“It feels like officials are hiding the coronavirus and all that they are concerned about is just work. If I had the means I would be resigning straight away because this agency is so toxic. It is only looking after the interests  of the politicians and does not care about our well being,” she said.

Qina said the rumours were not true.