Mzansi Today

South Africa’s COVID-19 infections show signs of slowing across most provinces, and Ramaphosa could announce eased lockdown restrictions later this week. This is according to a report by The Sunday Times, which cited expert opinions that the pandemic is waning in major provinces such as Gauteng, the Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape. Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced yesterday that there are now a total of 553,188 cases of coronavirus in South Africa. This is an increase of 7,712 cases from the 545,476 infections reported previously. The data shows that there are 301 new COVID-19 related deaths, taking the total to 10,210 casualties, following 305 deaths reported on Friday. These numbers reflect a continued trend in the decline of daily active cases and an increased recovery rate across the country. However, professor Salim Abdool Karim has said he is concerned about KwaZulu-Natal, which has a dangerous infection rate. “If the epidemic really takes off in KZN like what we saw ...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a stern warning on alcohol-related incidents. The president says several international and domestic studies show clear linkages between alcohol abuse and gender-based violence. Over 21 women and children have died violently in recent weeks. Ramaphosa says a war is being waged against women and children in South Africa. He says rapists and killers walk among us and have no regard for the sanctity of life. Of course, it is not alcohol that rapes or kills a woman or a child,” Ramaphosa said. “Rather, it is the actions of violent men but if alcohol intoxication is contributing to these crimes, then it must be addressed with urgency. “We need to draw the lessons from this lockdown and decide how we can protect our society from the abuse of alcohol. “Certainly, we need to provide greater support to people with drinking problems, including through rehabilitation and treatment.” The president says responsible drinking needs to be encouraged es...

Uk scientists say they have discovered COVID-19 cure. According to an Oxford University news release issued on Tuesday, a total of 2104 patients were randomised to receive dexamethasone 6 mg once per day (either by mouth or by intravenous injection) for ten days and were compared with 4321 patients randomised to usual care alone. The University of Oxford has reported that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland scientists have made a breakthrough in the fight against the deadly Coronavirus by discovering that an existing drug called dexamethasone can help to cure infected patients. Among the patients who received usual care alone, 28-day mortality was highest in those who required ventilation (41%), intermediate in those patients who required oxygen only (25%), and lowest among those who did not require any respiratory intervention (13%) Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, a...

Minister of Small Business and Development Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says that government is looking to open more sectors as part of a move to an ‘advanced level 3 lockdown’. Speaking in an interview with eNCA, Ntshavheni said that the move will be especially beneficial for small businesses such as hairdressers and restaurant. “Already, when the president announced the movement to level 3, he also announced what he called the advanced level 3, which will include sit-down restaurants and also the opening up of personal care services,” Ntshavheni said. She added that her department has already completed the development protocols but that there were still some businesses that were seen as problematic – especially tattoo parlours. “The protocols are ready – including the rules for sit-down restaurants, hair salons, massage and other personal care services. We are ready to open it up Minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu says that government currently has no plans to review its r...

Chaos unfolded in Dobsonville, Soweto, on the morning of Monday 15 June, as a cash-in-transit (CIT) van was bombed by unknown assailants who pillaged it of cash before making a getaway. Community members in the area then engaged in a free for all cash-grab of loose notes that floated from the skies amid the debris. 1/6 Video #CITRobbery in Dobsonville Soweto. WATCH as members of the public go for the cash left behind... pic.twitter.com/VMPv3Qe4Y7 — Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) June 15, 2020 Police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe told The South African that there were no injuries reported, and that a manhunt is underway for a group of men who orchestrated the bombing. “Gauteng police have launched a manhunt for a group of suspects after a G-4S cash van was attacked at 9:30 on Monday 15 June in Dobsonville, Soweto,” she said. “It is alleged that a group of heavily armed gunmen travelling in a red jeep with false number plates drove into the cash van forcing it to a halt...

  The government has made a number of changes to South Africa’s level 3 lockdown regulations, with more likely on the way, Cabinet has said. It said in a media statement on Thursday (11 June), that these changes will be based on a health assessment presentation next week. “Cabinet received an updated report from the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC),” it said. “The NCCC tabled a number of recommendations pertaining to the enhanced risk-adjusted alert level 3 of the national lockdown. The recommendations are based on submissions made by various sectors and deliberations by the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure. “However, Cabinet decided to defer approval of the recommendations pending a full health assessment report from the Ministerial Health Advisory Committee on Covid-19. The NCCC is expected to receive the full presentation by early next week. Despite this delay, the government published a number of new directives this week which amend the cou...

“HOWZIT?” That was how a gunman greeted Durban resident Keagen Chetty, in the parking lot of his flat, before gunning him down in front of his wife and best friend on Thursday. Chetty, 36, his wife Dalene and a friend, who would not be named, were standing in the parking lot of a block of flats, on Tangerine Drive in Orient Hills, Isipingo, at 6.30am. Chetty, who worked at South Coast Bus Service, had been taking his wife to work at the time. The friend said they were standing next to the car, having a conversation, when a white VW Polo drove past and turned around at the cul de sac. Colonel Thembeka Mbele, a police spokesperson, said there had been three men in the car. Chetty’s friend said the car windows had been open slightly and one of the men had said “Howzit” as the car drew closer. The friend said one of the occupants got off and walked up to Chetty. “He shot him – the bangs just went off. I think we took two steps and then realised what had happened. I lost my bes...

Department for Basic Education (DBE) Minister Angie Motshekga has published the amended school calendar for 2020. The four school terms for 2020 are now gazetted as follows: Term 1: 15 January – 18 March Term 2: 8 June – 7 August Term 3: 12 August – 23 September Term 4: 5 October – 15 December This new calendar means that between Term 2 and Term 3 there will only be a single day’s holiday, as Monday 10 August is a public holiday. However, to provide some compensation for this, Term 3 will only comprise seven weeks. This calendar has been orchestrated in such a way that there will only be one public holiday throughout 2020 that results in a day taken off school – taking place on 16 June. Delayed reopening Schools were closed on 18 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, following a lengthy hiatus, were set to reopen on 1 June for Grade 7 and 12 learners. However, this date was postponed by a week because the majority of schools were not ready to take learners. School...

Three men have been arrested for killing a SAPS officer in Nyanga. The 30-year-old policewoman was shot while on duty in Crossroads. One of the three arrested suspects was wounded and is in hospital under police guard. According to police, officers from Nyanga Police Station were on patrol and saw a spaza shop that was still open. They went to the premises in terms of the Disaster Management Act regulations to investigate. When they entered, a man came from behind and fired shots at them. They returned fire on the man as he fled, he fell a short distance away from the scene and was arrested. A spokesperson for the national police commissioner, Vish Naidoo: “We welcome the arrest of the three men but at the same time we condemn the killing of the 30-year-old constable. The constable was seriously wounded but unfortunately succumbed to her wounds later on.”

A multi-story building in Durban collapses in the CBD at the corner of Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and Goonam streets on Tuesday morning. The deadly incident sparked an immediate response, but there are fears that more people – and other parts of the structure – may be in imminent danger. Paramedics attended the scene and declare one dead body and eight sustained minor to major injuries. Leon Fourie, Life EMS operations manager said emergency services responded to the call after the structural collapse at Noor Chambers. Video: Building collapses in Durban CBD A building ledge has apparently collapsed in the Durban CBD in KwaZulu-Natal. Video: Supplied. #Durban pic.twitter.com/w8Bd9to5jF — ⚡️𝔽𝕒𝕚𝕫𝕖𝕝 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕝 🇿🇦 (@FaizelPatel143) June 9, 2020 BREAKING: Parts of a building at the corner of Dr Yusuf Dadoo and Dr Goonam street has collapsed in the Durban CBD. So far, one person has died. Several others are believed to be entrapped in the building. Emergency services are on th...

This week’s booze binge has set SA back in its fight against Covid-19. Across the country, a massive surge of people in hospital emergency rooms with alcohol-related injuries has put additional strain on health-care numbers and filled up ICU beds needed for Covid-19 patients. Professor Elmin Steyn, Tygerberg Hospital’s head of surgery and the trauma unit, said alcohol plus Covid-19 “massively” reduced access to medical care for others. Patients having to wait for surgeries end up having to go to ICU. The problem is the ICU beds are filled with gravely ill Covid-19 patients,” she said. Steyn said if people land up in hospital now, their treatment is fraught with risk, with their chances of dying from their injuries much higher, even in cases of preventable death. Tygerberg, in Cape Town, is also battling with staff shortages, with at least 293 staff infected with Covid, five of whom have died. In Johannesburg, Dr Pat Saffy, head of the Helen Joseph Hospital emergency department,...

The Alexandra, Randburg, Midrand, Sandton Taxi Association (ARMSTA) announced that it will increase taxi fares by 172%. A notice that has left many commuters shocked amid the lockdown regulations which will see many returning to work in June. South Africa’s Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula has since urged associations and the operators to be mindful of the poor when adjusting fares. In a statement, Mbalula warned the taxi industry against illegal profiteering during the lockdown. “We are aware that some taxis have not been operating for some time now and that those which have been operating have been doing so at a limited capacity. We understand that there may be a need for fare increases but those increases must be fair, the industry must take into consideration the plight of the poor and the working class, who form the majority of their customers. Anything outside of that fairness is illegality”, he said. Mbalula said his department would refer the matter to the Compe...

SA’s Covid-9 death toll climbed to 952 on Saturday, an increase of 44 deaths in the past 24-hour cycle. The number of confirmed cases also climbed, with 45,973 recorded on Saturday. This was an increase of 2,539 cases in the past 24 hours. The health ministry announced the latest figures in a statement on Saturday. This means there have been 11,616 new cases of the respiratory illness since Monday, June 1, when the country moved to level 3 of the lockdown. There have also been 247 deaths since Monday. A total of 850 871 tests have been conducted to date with 30 196 tests done in the last 24 hours. There have been 24 258 recoveries which translates to a recovery rate of 52.8%. The number of cases was provided as: Covid-19 6JuneThe Western Cape is still the COVID-19 epicentre with the most positive cases in the country. Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize, on Saturday 6 June, received 20 ventilators and handed them over to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Jo...

It was a bloody Wednesday for Kraaifontein residents when three men were killed and a woman, who was shot eight times, miraculously survived. The first fatality occurred just after noon when a fruit seller was gunned down on the corner of Eon Way and Old Paarl Road in Scottsdene. The man’s boss said the victim, known as Hennie, aged 39, was out on parole. “He was trustworthy with good manners. He had a premonition because he told me that morning that he had a feeling he shouldn’t stand at his intersection. “It was two guys with masks who shot him, we had to duck when the bullets started flying.” Later that day, at 7 pm, another man was knifed to death in Boesak Street in Wallacedene. And an hour later, shots went off in Bonny Close in Watsonia Park, where a 50-year-old woman was shot inside her home. A neighbour says the woman identified as Auntie Pinkie was hit eight times and rushed to hospital, where doctors managed to save her life. The neighbour says: “Auntie Pin...

The World Health Organization has resumed its global trials of the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for COVID-19. The health body suspended the study after two research papers in respected journals flagged health dangers. But those papers were withdrawn this week. That’s just as South Africa prepares to enrol its first patients in the International Solidarity Trial. Both the New England Journal and Lancet have retracted studies that vilified hydroxychloroquine. They’re now saying the authors were unable to independently verify the data behind the analysis. Questions have emerged around the integrity of the data obtained from a little-known company called Surgisphere. The company claimed to have sourced information from more than a thousand hospitals worldwide. Last month, the WHO halted the use of hydroxychloroquine in the Solidarity Trial based on those studies. But it reversed the decision this week. The WHO admits it should have asked for the datab...

Concerns have been raised over how South Africa is counting the number of people who have died in South Africa due to COVID-19. This follows reports of several children and teenagers who tested positive for the coronavirus, but whose deaths were not necessarily caused by COVID-19. One of the cases was a two-day-old baby, who was born prematurely to a mother who tested positive for the coronavirus. While the fact that the mother probably transmitted the virus to her unborn child is scientifically significant, the baby did not die because of COVID-19. Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, told eNCA that the cause of death was hyaline membrane disease and the fact that the child tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was purely coincidental. Several other cases have also been questioned. These include a two-year-old baby with serious comorbidities, a teenager who was suffering from a very rare disease, and a teenager...

President Cyril Ramaphosa is in the Western Cape to assess the readiness of the province in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. South Africa now has a total of 40,792 infections, the health ministry said. It saw a rise of 56 deaths for a total of 848 fatalities. More than half of the cases are in the Western Cape region where health services are under pressure. The president was updated on the province’s hotspot strategy and implementation plan.

On 15 March 2020, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, declared a national state of disaster in South Africa. This, Dlamini-Zuma said, was done after considering the magnitude and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). She added that Mmaphaka Tau, head of the national disaster management centre, has also classified the COVID-19 pandemic as a national disaster. The national state of disaster declaration was immediately followed by restrictions on certain activities and later resulted in a national lockdown. Dlamini-Zuma made the declaration under Section 27(1) and Section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002. Section 27 of the Disaster Management Act states, among other things: A national state of disaster that has been declared in terms of subsection (1) (a) lapses three months after it has been declared. (b) maybe terminated by the Ministe...

The Western Cape government’s Covid-19 testing strategy has been changed due to the huge backlog of tests, forcing them to prioritise high-risk cases and the most vulnerable. Premier Alan Winde said on Tuesday the decision to only test those who are at highest risk and most vulnerable of dying from Covid-19 infection in the Cape Town metropolitan area, will allow them to implement speedy interventions as the test results for these vulnerable groups will come back quicker. “This decision follows confirmation that the backlog of tests from the Western Cape at the National Health Laboratory Service grew to 27 000. We understand that other provinces are experiencing similar backlogs. “This means that someone who is seriously ill in hospital, or a health worker, or someone who we know is at high risk of dying from Covid-19, may have to wait between seven to 12 days for a result. This is simply not an option,” Winde said. “Until such stage as extra testing capacity is made availabl...

‘If we follow the protocols and maintain all precautions, we will effectively minimize the risk posed by the coronavirus,’ says the president. In his latest letter on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged schools to not reopen until all the necessary precautions are in place. This as the reopening that was meant to have taken place today for grades 7 and 12 has now been delayed for a further week. Ramaphosa has assured parents that the government and all stakeholders are doing all they can to ensure their children’s safety. “We have heard them, we welcome their contributions and are taking steps to address their concerns as well as proposals,” he said. Read the full letter below: Today is the International Day for Protection of Children, which is commemorated around the world to draw attention to children’s rights and welfare. Fittingly, it is also the UN Global Day of Parents, honouring the commitment of parents and caregivers to the wellbeing of children. On this day I want t...