22 Jun 2020

The new COVID-19 contact tracing application dubbed Bsafe will promote compliance, says  Presidential Task Force team scientific advisor, Dr Mogomotsi Matshaba.

Briefing the media on June 21, Dr Matshaba said unlike the current manual registration where pens were shared as well as overcrowding at points of entry, the platform would be more effective in preventing the  spread of the virus.

He said there had been growing COVID-19 compliance concerns at some service points due to congestion, resulting in failure to observe social distancing protocols.

Dr Matshaba urged companies and individuals to register for Bsafe saying though not mandatory, it would reduce queues.

Manual registration, which had been a challenge for contact tracing, he explained, would be phased out.

“Some registers were not done properly, which proved difficult when they were doing contact tracing,” he said adding some hand writing was not legible.

All public sites and public transport operators were expected to upload the App which was compatible to all types of phones, he said.

 Dismissing privacy advocates  conceerns, Dr Matshaba said the App would be strictly used for contact tracing while the data collected would be for public health purposes.

 The App, he said, was expected to assist in speeding up contact tracing. 

App inventor, Brastorne Enterprises’ chief executive officer, Mr Martin Setimela said it was triggered by government’s request for assistance to curb the spread of the virus. 

Mr Stimela said the App was compatible with all android phones while there was a web link for non-android phones.

Currently, 50 000 individuals and 2 000 companies had registered for Bsafe, he said.

Mr Stimela assured the public of their data’s security saying the system could not be easily hacked. ends