Covid-19 and Local News & Updates

Tests Conducted – 1 596 995 |  Positive Cases – 144264  |  Recoveries – 70614  |  Deaths – 2529

PLEASE SAVE WATER!

NOTE FROM EDITOR – “We are are taking the rest of the week off as the Ed is not at his best and so do apologise to readers in advance. Should there be serious breaking news we will however publish  but until then stay warm and masked up in public.” 

LOCAL:

Covid-19 Update 45 – KOUGA TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT AT HUMANSDORP CLOSED FOR DECONTAMINATION    –  St Francis Bay at the moment has no active cases of COVID-19, but this is no time to become complacent.

New TLB Driver Clears The Way For Women  –  A former litter-picker is clearing a new career path for women at Kouga Municipality.

PORT ELIZABETH, EASTERN CAPE AND SOUTHERN CAPE:

PICS | Used bedpans, overflowing bins, no food for hours – claims from Makhanda hospital isolated patients  –  Two patients have told of conditions in the isolation room at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda.

DA appeals to Deputy President to intervene in EC ‘health crisis’  –  The Democratic Alliance said it would appeal to Deputy President, David Mabuza, as the Leader of Government Business, to make an urgent intervention in the Eastern Cape’s health crisis.

Saving Eastern Cape from Covid-19 existential threat  –  This week was only the start of the ‘peak’ predicted for the Eastern Cape and yet the province is already overwhelmed.

Probe into dumped Covid-19 test kits  –  Investigations are under way into how hundreds of Covid-19 test kits — all marked as urgent — were dumped on the side of a national road in the Eastern Cape.

NATIONAL COMMAND COUNCIL & LOCKDOWN:

Acsa welcomes reopening of three more airports for business travel  –  Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has welcomed Monday’s announcement that three more airports will be opened for business travel from July 1: Port Elizabeth, Upington and Bloemfontein.

Two men caught with illicit cigarettes worth about R300k granted bail  –  Two men, who were caught in possession of illicit cigarettes worth over R300 000, have been granted bail, Limpopo police said on Monday.

SA loses in Covid-19 happiness Tri-Nations  –  The results are in, and the lockdown has made South Africans much more miserable compared to Australia and New Zealand, where the rules weren’t as strict.

Lockdown level 3: you may leave your home to exercise with three friends  –  Co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has published new regulations outlining which activities and businesses are allowed under the advanced level 3 lockdown.

SOUTH AFRICA & AFRICAN CONTINENT:

Khoisan protesters outside Union Buildings hunt pigeons to stay alive  –    The struggle for recognition that King Khoisan and his group embarked on in 2017 continues with greater hardship under the coronavirus lockdown.

Mopping-up underway following Cape Town’s intense cold front  –  The City of Cape Town has started mopping-up operations following the intense and destructive cold front that hit the area on Saturday. 

Malawi 2020: A beacon of hope for African opposition parties  –  Opposition parties across sub-Saharan Africa should sit up and take notice. Malawi has set a blueprint for taking on dominant, repressive, corrupt, and authoritarian governing parties.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS:

Serious security flaw on COVID-19 relief fund website – Employers warned not to apply  –  Business for SA has uncovered an urgent security flaw in the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) application system.

SANDF budget cuts send Air Force into tailspin  –  Budget cuts across the SANDF means the Air Force is unable to fly, placing pilots at risk of losing specific qualifications, while money is being taken from training budgets elsewhere, to pay for operations and deployments.

Unions slam public enterprises over exit from SAA forum  –  In a statement on Sunday, the unions said the move bore out their contention that the department, led by minister Pravin Gordhan “has been manipulative and dishonest in its engagement”.

Government investigates lottery funded projects  –  The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) has commissioned an independent investigation into multimillion-rand Lottery-funded projects.

ZONNDO COMMISSION:

Where was Parliament when the wheels came off at Prasa, asks Judge Zondo  –  Why was there no political and parliamentary oversight when things took a sharp downhill turn at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa?

COURTS:

Supreme Court of Appeal delivers another blow to Mkhwebane –  Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s court woes continue after the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed her application for leave to appeal against the judgment that overturned her report on the Estina dairy farm scandal

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE:

Take GBV as seriously as Covid-19, Bathabile Dlamini urges government  –  ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini has called on the government to take gender based-violence as seriously as it does the Covid-19 pandemic.

BUSINESS, MONEY & ECONOMY:

These graphs show how businesses have suffered during lockdown in South Africa – including layoffs and possible closures  –  A series of polls conducted by Stats SA shows how lockdown has impacted private business in South Africa, forcing redundancies and company closures.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:

Could a boycott kill Facebook?  –   Boycotts can be extremely effective – as Facebook is finding out.  (Ed’s comment – let’s hope so)

India bans TikTok, WeChat and dozens more Chinese apps  –  India’s government has banned TikTok and dozens more Chinese-made apps it says are a danger to the country.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

China passes controversial Hong Kong national security law – reports  –  Critics say the measure, which criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, erodes Hong Kong’s autonomy

St Louis: US couple who pointed guns at protesters in video ‘were in fear of their lives’  –  Police say they responded to reports that the group was yelling obscenities and threats of harm to the residents.

 

Trump retweets video featuring supporter shouting ‘white power’   –  The racist slogan, associated with white supremacists, was used in a video showing protesters shouting at each other in Florida.

THIS & THAT:

Frustrated Anele Mdoda asks racists: What is it you would like us to do?  –  The noise around the Black Lives Matter movement may have faded but the conversations around racism are more robust than ever

SPORT: 

WORLD RUGBY FAILS TO MAKE DECISION ON 2020 SEASON  –  There will be no decision Tuesday by World Rugby on the thorny issue of how many international Tests can be played in November, an official said.

Collo’s Blog: