Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gauteng government has spent a staggering R1.238bn of much-needed Covid-19 funds on the construction of four new “field intensive care” hospitals. The money was spent in 2020, but two are still not open. The other two are only partially open and are being repurposed for other aspects of healthcare. The Alternative Build Technology units were controversially commissioned in March 2020 to provide extra bed capacity for the first wave of the pandemic.