Government has sought to assure South Africans that it will not spy or intercept their cellphone conversations in the process of tracing the movements of people who have made contact with someone who has contracted Covid-19.
It will also appoint a retired judge to ensure the safeguarding of citizens' private information and that the information is only used for Covid-19-related purposes.
“We are under a situation where we have declared a state of disaster management and we are in a lockdown. It is in our interest as South Africans to minimise the spread of a virus. That means we have a responsibility to look at any environment that can help us minimise the spread of a virus and among those is what we call contact tracing,” she added.
Ndabeni-Abrahams said as the patients fill in their information, it is then that the department of health will seek permission from the electronic communications network service licensees to say “we have these people that have tested positive, can you therefore give us access to the geolocation?” “We do respect the fact that everyone has a right to privacy but in a situation like this, our individual rights do not supersede the country's rights. The most important and critical right is ensuring safety for South Africans so that the spread does not continue,” she added.
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