Daily news update: Covid-19 stats, Vaccine jab for healthcare workers and 5G towers torched

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Daily Covid-19 update: 20,999 new cases as another 441 deaths confirmed

As of Thursday, 7 January 2021, the cumulative number of detected Covid-19 cases is 1,170,590 with 20,999 new cases identified, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has confirmed.

441 more Covid-19 related deaths were reported, with 70 from Eastern Cape, 23 from Free State, 75 from Gauteng, 132 from Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), 11 from Limpopo, 7 from Mpumalanga, 4 from Northern Cape and 119 from Western Cape.

This brings the total number of Covid-19 related deaths to 31,809.

 

Recoveries now stand at 938,216 with a recovery rate of 80,1%.

SA’s ‘exhausted’ healthcare workers to get Covid-19 vaccine jab in January

South Africa’s frontline healthcare workers will be the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. And they will not have to wait long. 

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday that the first batch of one million AstraZeneca vaccine vials would arrive in the country in January. The second batch of 500,000 would come in February.

The good news was confirmed to the Department of Health this week by the Serum Institute of India, the main vaccine producer for AstraZeneca globally. 

Since March last year, frontline healthcare workers fighting Covid-19 have hardly had any time to rest, and the resurgence of infections had taken place before they could take a break. 

“Their levels of exhaustion is noticeable,” Mkhize reported. 

AstraZeneca is likely to be the most widely used vaccine, due to is temperature stability. The vaccine can be stored at temperatures between 2°C to 8°C, which is ideal for South Africa’s low commercial ultra-low cold chain storage capabilities. 

Minister, KZN premier condemn torching of 5G towers

Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala have condemned the conspiracy-fuelled torching of 5G towers in eThekwini.

It is alleged that aggrieved community members of in Umlazi, KwaMashu and Ntuzuma on Thursday set fire to the recently installed 5G masts in these areas, resulting in multi-million rand damages to telecommunication infrastructure and massive disruption of communication services.

The KwaZulu-Natal government said the attacks were, in part, driven by conspiracy theories which claim that there were dangers associated with the 5G network including that it may be driving the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic. Another allegation is that members of the community were not sufficiently consulted before the towers were erected, the provincial government added.

CWU unhappy with SABC over outcome of Section 189 process

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) says that in its view, the Section 189 retrenchment process at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has not been concluded, following an announcement by the public broadcaster that it had been wound up.

In a statement on Thursday, the SABC said the Section 189 process was concluded “after an extensive six-month consultation process”.

“This process comprised 48 consultations, including seven [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] facilitated consultative sessions, nine bilateral sessions, 28 divisional structure consultative sessions and four facilitated sessions by an independent labour expert.

“This Section 189 process exceeded the minimum legislative requirements of 60 days and four sessions and was finalised on 6 November 2020.

“However, on 23 November 2020, the SABC board suspended the execution of the process by 30 days to enable management to further engage directly with employees on the proposed structures. The extended consultation process ended on 31 December 2020.

“After considering all options to minimise the total number of affected employees, the SABC has further reduced the number of affected redundant employees to 303 – just under half of the originally projected 600 redundancies. However, the final numbers of redundancies are dependent on the acceptance of the proposed alternatives and the number of employees who will opt for voluntary severance packages (VSPs) and early retirement,” the statement reads.

Duarte looking forward to retirement in two years’ time

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte has announced that she will retire from her position in two years’ time.

It is a strong indication that the 67-year-old will not be making herself available for re-election to one of the ANC’s top six positions.

She indicated that she wants to be succeeded by a “young woman”.

The position of deputy secretary-general is not reserved for a woman, but has in recent years been occupied by a woman as the ANC tries to maintain a gender balance in its leadership structures.

The ANC is expected to go to its elective conference at the end of next year, by which time Duarte would have been in her current position for a decade.

She was previously a spokesperson for the party, an ambassador to Mozambique, and an MEC in Gauteng.

938 matric exam markers withdraw from marking across five provinces

Provincial education departments had to make last-minute changes as nearly 1 000 markers pulled out of marking matric exam papers in five provinces.

At least 938 matric exam script markers had to pull out of the process because of bereavements in their families and Covid-19 infections in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Western Cape.

Provinces had to pull last-minute strings to ensure that unavailable markers were replaced.

Markers started arriving at 181 centres across the country on Monday for training and marking started on Tuesday.

It was expected to end on 22 January, and matric results scheduled to be released on 23 February

Farm murders increased in 2020 despite lockdown – TAU SA

Restrictions on people’s movements during the various COVID-19-related lockdown stages last year appear not to have helped reduce the number of murders on South Africa’s farms and smallholdings.

In fact, according to statistics collected by TAU SA, 71 of these murders occurred nationwide in 2020, or a 26,8% increase on the 56 murders on farms and smallholdings during 2019 (2018: 54).

According to Chris van Zyl, TAU SA’s assistant general manager, the organisation defined farm attacks and farm murders as acts of violence against residents and workers on, and visitors to, farms and smallholdings.

TAU SA said in a statement that the organisation collected its data on these attacks and murders from a range of direct and indirect sources, and aimed to verify the accuracy as far as possible.

Its latest statistics showed that the 71 farm murders that the organisation recorded in 2020 occurred in 397 farm attacks during the same year (2019: 419).

Victims of these murders reportedly comprised 44 farmers, 13 spouses or other direct family members of farmers, nine workers, and five visitors.

SALBA distances itself from SAB’s booze lawsuit against government

The South African Liquor Brand Owners’ Association (SALBA) has distanced itself from the legal action lodged by South African Breweries (SAB) against government’s decision to prohibit all sales of alcohol with effect from 29 December 2020.

In a statement, SALBA said that while very concerned about the current prohibition of all alcohol sales, they were not party to the litigation process lodged by SAB on Thursday.

”SALBA shares the concern about the continued increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and would like to work with government and all of society to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the health system and minimise Covid-related deaths,” said SALBA

Twitter freaks out over DBN Gogo’s politically-connected family tree

What started out as a chat about Covid-19 statistics and public gatherings quickly became a conversation about family trees and political connections when a keen-eyed Twitter user pointed out that popular DJ, DBN Gogo (pronounced Deben Gogo) is the daughter of South African Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe.

Mining magnate and businesswoman, Bridgette Radebe, is her stepmother.

On Wednesday evening, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize shocked the nation with the day’s Covid-19 stats, declaring that over 21,000 new cases had been discovered after testing efforts had also been ramped up.

“Coz I thought yal said it was groove taking us to top,” tweeted DBN Gogo, whose real name is Mandisa Radebe.

She quickly deleted the tweet and deleted another in which she is alleged to have said that the “incubation period” had passed.

Twitter is not happy about new WhatsApp privacy policy update

WhatsApp users have two choices: either accept the new privacy policy arrangement or stop using the app all together.

WhatsApp recently announced its terms of service and privacy policy update, stating that if users want to continue using the messaging service from next month, they must agree to share their personal information with Facebook, which owns the instant-messaging app.

“WhatsApp is updating its terms and privacy policy,” read the notification, which was sent out to the app’s users.

News of the update sent Twitter users into a frenzy, with some considering deleting the app and others joining different messaging apps such as Telegram.

It’s official: Percy Tau to play for Brighton in the English Premier League

Brighton and Hove Albion confirmed on Thursday that Percy Tau would be returning to the club for the rest of the 2020/21 season.

Tau was signed by Brighton in 2018, but was immediately sent on loan to Belgium, because he was not able to secure a work permit to play in the UK.

Now, however, changes in regulations because of Britain’s departure from the European Union have meant that Brighton have been able to recall Tau from his loan spell at Anderlecht to play for them.

US consortium to take a majority ownership in The Sharks

In a move designed to bolster the Sharks’ ambitions of becoming a global force in world rugby, the KwaZulu-Natal franchise has welcomed a dynamic new investor as their majority partner.

MVM Holdings, an international investment consortium spearheaded by Marco Masotti, has entered into an agreement to purchase a 51 percent majority stake in the Sharks. The current shareholders, the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union and SuperSport International, will hold the remaining 49 percent of the franchise. The financial terms of the transaction are confidential.

MVM Holdings brings significant finance, sports and management expertise and resources to the Sharks franchise.

Double delight for SA: De Villiers wins Dakar fifth stage, Baragwanath second

South African Giniel de Villiers won Thursday’s gruelling fifth stage of the Dakar Rally that left leading motorcyclist Kevin Benavides with a broken nose as he shattered his helmet jumping off a dune.

De Villiers completed the 456km special in his Toyota in 5hr 09min 25sec, finishing 0.58sec ahead of compatriot Brian Baragwanath, who has picked up another podium finish this year following second place on the prologue.

“Mr Dakar”, aka 13-time winner Stephane Peterhansel rounded out the podium, stretching his lead in the overall standings over Nasser al-Attiyah to 6:11 after the Qatari finished fourth, 2:13 behind the Frenchman.

Defending champion Carlos Sainz is in third overall, 48:13 off the pace.

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