Monday, 24 August - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za)
Page 2 – Wits study in rural areas to determine Covid spread Page 3 – Huge blaze destroys wholesalers complex in city
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 1 – Weekend drunk driving mayhem
Page 1 – Disgruntled MK veterans threaten to march to Union buildings
Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za) Page 2 – Minister blamed for Post Office turmoil Page 3 – Department seeks to fast-track work visas
Citizen (www.citizen.co.za) Page 6 – R1.4bn is down drain’
Page 9 – S Korea Covid cases surge
연합뉴스 (www.yonhapnews.co.kr)
남아공 코로나19 누적 확진자 60만명 넘어 남아공 최장수 116세 할아버지 블롬 타계
Wits study in rural areas to determine Covid spread
Pretoria News
24 Aug 2020
TEBOGO MONAMA
ONE of the issues that have left researchers and doctors puzzled about Covid-19 is how some people are asymptomatic and can still spread the disease while others have severe symptoms.
Now, researchers at Wits University have started a new study to look into how many people in one household contract the virus and transmit it without any symptoms in rural areas.
Professor Cheryl Cohen, principal investigator of the study, said: “The study will help answer vital questions about how common asymptomatic infection is and how people who are
infected with SarsCoV-2, but who remain asymptomatic, transmit the virus compared to those who do have symptoms.
“The study will also examine the role of children in virus transmission, which will be important as the schools reopen.”
Cohen is a full professor of Epidemiology at the Wits School of Public Health and Head of the Centre for Respiratory Disease and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
The Mpumalanga component of the study draws participants from communities that form part of the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System site platform of the South African Medical Research Council-Wits Rural Public Health and Health
Transitions Research Unit.
Agincourt is a major research endeavour in Wits University’s rural campus in
Bushbuckridge, which has run longitudinal studies, intervention trials, and health systems research in this community for over 25 years.
Professor Kathleen Kahn runs the study in Agincourt. She said: “Meeting the challenge of Covid-19 in rural South Africa is critical to the national response, now more than ever as the pandemic approaches its rural peak. Doing so effectively demands a deep understanding of how virus transmission differs among rural families and communities.”
Dr Neil Martinson, chief executive director in the Wits Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Baragwanath Hospital, is the principal investigator in the study in Jouberton township in Klerksdorp, said it was important to study the disease in areas outside large cities and metros.
“Obtaining more information from settings outside of large metropolitan areas is important.
This study will provide more understanding of the impact and transmission of Covid-19 in peripheral townships where health services, including testing sites, are not as available as in large cities; where household members are less likely to be employed; and where they are less likely to be able to safely self-isolate or self-quarantine.”
Huge blaze destroys
wholesalers complex in city
Pretoria News
24 Aug 2020
SAKHILE NDLAZI sakhile.ndlazi@inl.co.za
OUPA MOKOENA African News Agency (ANA)FIRE gutted the Cosave PowerBuild & Wholesalers in Pretoria West on Saturday night. |
FIRE gutted the large Cosave PowerBuild & Wholesalers in Pretoria West on Saturday.
Tshwane Emergency Services spokesperson Roland Hendricks said they got a call at about 6.45pm and arrived to find that the sales department containing paint, carpets and other items had been destroyed.
Gaynor James, who was at a nearby petrol station at the time, said “it was a really big fire”.
She said she ran in to tell the manager, who called emergency services. “It took a couple of minutes and then the explosions started.
“You could hear gas bottles, electricity, small paints and (smell) the strong odours as the flames grew,” she said.
Meanwhile, the fire fighting and emergency response units in the City have received a boost following the acquisition of a new specialised fleet of vehicles.
The five new vehicles are designed to improve the delivery of emergency services.
The acquisition makes Tshwane the only municipality to have these kind of vehicles. They are an aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle, a special infectious unit ambulance, an ICU ambulance, an armoured ambulance and an armoured fire truck. They feature the latest modern techniques and technology inside and out.
The vehicles will operate throughout the city to ensure that professional assistance is available at the scene of incidents to deal with them promptly and efficiently in the shortest time possible.
“The fleet is meant to help serve townships and suburbs across all regions and it will also respond to the outermost parts of the city, as and when required,” said Tshwane head
administrator Mpho Nawa, emphasising that it was a privilege for the metro to have such vehicles.
The fleet would enhance the capacity of Wonderboom national airport in responding to firefighting emergencies, Nawa said. They were not ordinarily meant for use in urban areas, he said, but the powerful vehicles would also go into townships.
They were also available for use by the national government.
They will be used for, among other services, the evacuation and rescue of passengers and crew of aircraft involved in aviation incidents.
“But these emergency vehicles are not necessarily only for airports, but for any problems the metro has.
“They will serve the military as we are a home for the military, and they will be used to align governments.”
He said the special infectious unit ambulance would help in the care and transport of suspected or known patients with infectious diseases or contamination from incidents or inter-facility transfers.
The ICU ambulance would transport patients requiring intensive care from incidents or in inter-facility transfers.
“The armoured ambulance will enable rapid access and retrieval of injured people involved in life-threatening incidents, and the armoured fire truck will enable emergency services to respond to firefighting and other rescue operations,” Nawa said.
“These emergency vehicles have state-of-the-art equipment,” he said.
Weekend drunk driving mayhem
Metro cops in pursuit of suspect die in head-on collision
The Star Early Edition
24 Aug 2020
CHULUMANCO MAHAMBA chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za
THREE Tshwane metro police department (TMPD) officers are among the people who died in alcohol-related vehicle accidents that occurred in Gauteng this weekend while 740 drivers were caught for drunk driving.
This comes less than a week after the sale of alcohol under lockdown level 2 was allowed.
The three metro police officers were involved in a head-on collision with a suspected drunk driver in Pretoria West early yesterday morning.
According to TMPD spokesperson, senior superintendent Isaac Mahamba, the officers spotted a vehicle driving recklessly and facing oncoming traffic in the Pretoria CBD. The officers tried to stop the vehicle but it fled and the officers began a chase.
“The vehicle in pursuit was then involved in a head-on collision with the TMPD vehicle that was giving back up. The three Tshwane metro police officers that were inside the vehicle all died on the scene,” he said.
The driver of the car also died on the scene and a woman passenger in the vehicle was transported to the nearest hospital.
“Empty and full alcohol bottles were found in the suspect’s vehicle. A case of culpable homicide has been opened,” Mahamba added.
Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko said that she was saddened by the tragic accident and conveyed her condolence to the families of the officers and the TMPD.
“It is less than a week since the sale of alcohol has been opened under the National Disaster Act regulations, and a driver suspected of being drunk has taken the lives of three law enforcement officers. As government, we continue to plead with citizens to drink responsibility to prevent the senseless loss of lives,” she said.
The police announced that during weekend operations, about 740 suspects were arrested including two police officers for drinking and driving.
“A 27-year-old constable was arrested in Sedibeng on Saturday night after driving into an accident, injuring a bystander.
“He was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol as well as reckless and negligent driving. A sergeant was arrested in Norwood, Joburg, on Thursday night after his car collided with a metro police vehicle. The 37-year-old was arrested on the spot and
charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol,” said Gauteng SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters.
Peters added that intensified operations saw 283 suspects arrested in Ekurhuleni, 215 on the West Rand, 173 in Joburg, 100 in Tshwane and 70 in Sedibeng.
“These suspects were arrested for Contravention of Disaster Management Act and other crimes that include driving while under the influence of alcohol, murder, attempted murder,
rape, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, possession of unlicensed firearms, intimidation and possession of drugs,” she said.
Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela welcomed the arrests and offered condolences to the TMPD.
“This kind of tragedy cuts deep in all of us, reminding us of the great risks taken every day by our men and women in law enforcement to protect and keep our communities safe,” he said.
Mahamba said that the TMDP attended about 30 accidents from Friday until yesterday morning and that most of the accidents were alcohol related.
Meanwhile, Joburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson Senior Superintendent Wayne Minnaar confirmed that the JMPD attended to one alcohol-related accident this weekend.
On Saturday evening, a fatal vehicle accident happened in Eldorado Park between a blue VW Golf 1 and a white Toyota Quantum. Both vehicles were travelling in different directions along K43 Road.
“The driver lost control of his vehicle as it was oscillating forcing the vehicle to travel across the oncoming lanes and collided with the Quantum,” Minnaar said.
Both male passengers in the Golf died on the scene while the passengers in the Quantum were slightly injured. Minnaar added that during a joint law enforcement operation on Saturday evening, one male foreign national was arrested for selling alcohol takeaways in Hillbrow and seven suspects were issued J534 forms, written notice to appear in court, for public drinking. |
Disgruntled MK veterans threaten to march to Union buildings
The Star Early Edition
24 Aug 2020
SIHLE MAVUSO
Reuters African News Agency (ANA)
UMKHONTO weSizwe Military Veterans Association members have threatened to march to Union Buildings. | SIPHIWE SIBEKO
DISGRUNTLED members of the former military wing of the ANC falling under the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) have threatened to march to the Union Buildings to stage a hunger strike until they get the attention of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This was one of the several resolutions taken during a meeting of the affected members held in KwaMashu, north of Durban, on Saturday.
The meeting was attended by about 150 former liberation soldiers falling under the umbrella of MKMVA and was meant to pile pressure on Ramaphosa to establish a commission of inquiry to look at the welfare of liberation soldiers from all liberation parties.
Speaking to Independent Media, spokesperson of the affected group Lwazi Mzobe said they feel betrayed and neglected by the government as most of them were struggling to make ends meet. He said the commission should also look at their plight from 1990, when they returned to the country after being away for years.
“We want the commission to find out what happened to the resettlement money… If you look at it now, it is clear that ex-soldiers were dumped in the country without any help, yet there was money allocated for that. Some needed counselling and medical help but they never got it.
“Some soldiers came back from exile only to find that their families were dismantled by the apartheid government and they were rendered homeless,” Mzobe said.
He also alleged that they recently wrote to Ramaphosa and were told to wait until the Covid- 19 battle was over. “We can’t take excuses any more. The previous governments did not do anything… if Ramaphosa does not attend to us, we will be forced to march to Union
Buildings to stage a hunger… we will sit there until we die.”
Asked why they were not using the MKMVA to wage the fight, Mzobe said its leadership had failed them. MKMVA spokesperson Carl Niehaus said they understood the initiative and backed it.
Mzobe said the move to write to Ramaphosa was backed by the ex-Azanian People Liberation Army (APLA) as they were facing similar challenges.
However, the national chairperson of ex-APLA combatants, Ray Fihla, said they were not aware of the latest move by the disgruntled soldiers.
But he said issues that had to do with the welfare of ex-liberation forces were j ointly fought as they suffered the same challenges.
Gregory Nthatisi, of the MK Council, a splinter group from MKMVA and still within the ANC, said the only process he was aware of was the resolution on the unification of MK structures and the need to attend to the welfare of all veterans.
Ramaphosa’s acting spokesperson, Tyrone Seale, did not respond when asked whether the president was aware of the matter.
Minister blamed for Post Office turmoil
• Board and Ndabeni-Abrahams in battle over appointments and her alleged interference
Business Day
24 Aug 2020
Genevieve Quintal Political Editor
/Freddy MavundaAlleged interference: Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams is involved in a battle with the Post Office board over appointments and her alleged interference in operations.
The SA Post Office (Sapo) , which lost more than R1bn in the past financial year, is now the scene of battle between the board and shareholder minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams over appointments and her alleged interference in operations.
The Post Office is one of several state-owned entities that has had to rely on government bailouts to stay afloat.
The battles at the Post Office resulted in two board members, Sontaga Mantlhakga and Albert Ramoadi, who represent the Communications Workers Union (CWU), submitting letters of resignation.
In their letters, seen by Business Day, both said it was with regret that they had to resign, but that permission to serve on the board had been withdrawn by their employer.
Ramoadi and Mantlhakga are both employed by technology and telecom operator Telkom, which is still partially state owned.
Telkom confirmed that it had previously given the two employees permission to serve on the Post Office board but had since withdrawn that.
“Sapo is an active customer of Telkom, therefore the presence of Telkom employees on the board would amount to a conflict of interest, whether factual, potential or perceived,” the company said.
“It is in this context that the employees were informed that their permission would be withdrawn in line with Telkom’s code of ethics.”
Two sources, with knowledge of the goings on at the Sapo board, said there were allegations that the forced resignations of Mantlhakga and Ramoadi were part of a ploy by Ndabeni-
Abrahams, the minister of communications, telecommunications & postal services, to diminish the board to the extent that she would be able to disband it and replace it with her preferred candidates.
The minister has also been accused of interfering in Sapo’s operations and fighting against the board’s turnaround strategy.
Ndabeni-Abrahams has not responded to requests for comment sent to her since
last week. The recent resignations come after the removal of board chair Colleen Makhubele by Ndabeni-Abrahams earlier in August. Makhubele was demoted as board chair on August 7 by the minister after the board’s decision to take disciplinary action against acting group CEO Ivumile Nongogo.
Makhubele has since sent a lawyer’s letter to Ndabeni-Abrahams, accusing her of not following proper procedure when demoting her, and she is taking the matter to court.
In a lawyer’s letter to Ndabeni-Abrahams earlier this month, Makhubele accused the minister of having ulterior motives in her decision to remove the chair, after the Treasury refused to endorse an apparent agreement between Blue Label Telecoms and the SA Postbank.
A Postbank employee had sent a letter to the Treasury on a Sapo letterhead, asking for permission for the bank to partner with Blue Label. Fraud charges have since been laid against the employee who sent the letter without the Post Office board’s knowledge.
Nongogo resigned as acting CEO after the board decided to institute disciplinary charges against him for concluding an agreement with the SA Social Security Agency to distribute the temporary Covid-19 R350 relief grant, without consulting the board.
The board wrote to Nongogo, asking him to give reasons why disciplinary action should not be instituted against him.
It also asked him about his involvement in and knowledge of the letter sent to the Treasury by the Postbank employee.
Ndabeni-Abrahams, however, refused to accept Nongogo’s resignation and a request from the Post Office board to appoint group chief information officer Refilwe Kekana as the new acting CEO.
The Post Office confirmed that Nongogo had formally informed the board that he would be stepping down from his role as acting CEO.
“The board is in engagement with the ministry on the matter, after which an announcement will be made,” it said.
Nongogo is the second acting group CEO to be removed in eight months. Lindiwe Kwele was suspended in December just four months into the role, after the board received a whistle- blower’s report containing serious allegations including conflicts of interest and irregular extensions of contracts. Kwele has been challenging her suspension in an arbitration process.
Her suspension came barely months after taking over from Mark Barnes, who resigned in August 2019 after clashing with the board and the government over their decision to hive off Postbank, the financial services arm of the Post Office, with ambitions to become a fully fledged bank.
Department seeks to fast-track work visas
Business Day
24 Aug 2020
Bekezela Phakathi Parliamentary Writer phakathib@businesslive.co.za
Zweli Mkhize
In the battle to tackle the shortage of skilled staff brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, the government is looking to fast-track the issuing of work visas to foreign health
professionals and expedite their registration to allow them to practise in the country.
In the battle to tackle the shortage of skilled staff brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, the government is looking to fasttrack the issuing of work visas to foreign health
professionals and expedite their registration to allow them to practise in the country.
SA has an acute shortage of infectious-disease specialists in public and private hospitals, and this has in many instances hamstrung the response to Covid-19.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said that his department had also developed a national database for unemployed health professionals and private medical practitioners available to assist during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The department “further captured medical interns and community service personnel, who are completing their statutory obligations and will soon be available for surge deployment either on a temporary or fulltime basis”, Mkhize said in a written reply to a question in parliament from the DA published on Friday.
In April, Mkhize came under fire after the government brought in about 200 Cuban medical professionals at a cost of R440m a year.
At the time, the SA Medical Association (Sama) said there were plenty of unemployed and retired doctors in SA who could have been recruited by the government before it turned to Cuba. It said that SA had more than 15,000 doctors in the private sector, most of whom wanted to be involved but did not have an entry portal.
Mkhize defended the decision to bring in Cuban doctors, saying they had a particular strength in community medicine, an area in which SA was weak.
In his reply, Mkhize said his department had added to its database more foreign health professionals who intended to practise their trade in SA.
“Discussions are currently [being] held with the department of home affairs to assist in fasttracking visas as well as with professional councils to address professional registration and agree on temporary licensing arrangements as an emergency mechanism. These cadres could be deployed across provinces to relieve the surge demands,” the minister said.
The nine provincial health departments had placed recruitment adverts for additional health workers across various categories on a contractual basis ranging from six to 12 months, Mkhize said.
The targeted groups included bursary holders who recently completed training, unemployed health professionals and retired health professionals.
DA MP Hildegard Boshoff asked about the deployment of the Cuban doctors and their subsistence and travel expenditure costs for each province.
Mkhize said no costs had been incurred or would be incurred in future for subsistence expenditure for the duration of the contracts.
“There is no special arrangement for the Cuban health brigade transportation to get to their workplaces.
“They are incorporated into teams that include SA health professionals across provinces, and they all are transported with government vehicles where they are required to travel to areas away from the facilities where they are stationed,” said Mkhize.
Responding to a question from the EFF on purchase orders for Covid-19 test kits, Mkhize revealed that most of these were sourced from the US. Other suppliers were based in China, South Korea and Switzerland. Just more than 42,000 test kits had been ordered to date.
“Test kits are mostly ordered weekly, based on the number of kits that suppliers have available and are able to import into the country,” Mkhize said.
R1.4bn is down drain
The Citizen (Gauteng)
24 Aug 2020
The troubled OR Tambo district municipality in the Eastern Cape, famous for paying millions in handwritten invoices for Covid-19 “awareness” campaigns, has racked up close to R1.4 billion in irregular expenditure.
This week, municipal officials revealed these figures to parliament’s portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs.
At the end of June 2019, irregular expenditure amounted to R1.35 billion.
Mayor Thokozile Sokanyile said the reported balance emanated from an opening balance of R3.1 billion from the 2017-18 financial year.
The municipal council, however, wrote off R2.7 billion of the irregular expenditure. “This was subsequent to the irregular expenditure being investigated and found to have been incurred for transactions that proved value for money and benefit. The municipality set aside an amount of R229 410 425.75 for consequence management,” Sokanyile said.
OR Tambo was one of three municipalities where government’s district development model had been piloted.
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounted to just over R19 million and unauthorised expenditure to more than R14 million.
In its 2016-17 audit opinion, the municipality received a qualified audit opinion.
Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu found the municipality did not disclose all its irregular expenditure incurred during the year as required by the Municipal Finance Management Act.
Makwetu was unable to determine the full extent of the misstatement for the disclosed amount of R679.9 million.
In the 2017-18 financial year, Makwetu found the municipality did not adequately recognise its contractual commitments for the acquisition of property, plant and equipment as required by Generally Recognised Accounting Practices.
“This was due to a lack of systems and processes in place at the municipality to ensure that commitments are correctly disclosed,” said Makwetu.
“Consequently, commitments disclosed in note 46 to the consolidated and separate financial statements were overstated by R579.3 million for this particular year and in 2016-17 by R936.1 million.”
In the 2018-19 financial year, the municipality did not fully record irregular expenditure.
Sokanyile said the total expenditure related to Covid-19 amounted to R12.7 million. She said the district had a total of 54 water tankers carting water to areas in need.
Democratic Alliance MP Cilliers Brink said it appeared there would be no change in the municipality’s financial situation. – News24 Wire
S Korea Covid cases surge
The Citizen (Gauteng)
24 Aug 2020
– South Korea reported its highest daily number of coronavirus cases since early March yesterday as authorities warned the country was “on the brink of a nationwide pandemic” and tightened social distancing rules.
The majority of the 397 new infections were in the greater Seoul region – home to half the country’s 51 million people, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Authorities warned of tougher social distancing rules, which may include closing schools and businesses, if the number of new cases continues to grow at a fast pace after South Korea had largely brought its earlier outbreak under control.
“The situation is very grave and serious as we are on the brink of a nationwide pandemic,”
the centre’s chief, Jung Eun-kyeong, told reporters.
“Please stay home if possible,” Jung urged residents, adding that the number of infections has not peaked yet.
Virus curbs were tightened in the Seoul region last week and were further expanded to the rest of the country yesterday.
The measures include restrictions on large gatherings such as religious services; and the closing of nightclubs, karaoke bars and cyber cafes. All beaches have also been closed.
–
남아공 코로나 19 누적 확진자 60만명 넘어
송고시간 2020-08-22 17:15
남아공 코로나19 확진자 분포도
[남아공 보건부 제공. 재판매 및 DB 금지]
(요하네스버그=연합뉴스) 김성진 특파원 = 남아프리카공화국의 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(코로나 19) 누적 확진자가 60 만명을 넘어섰다.
남아공 보건부는 21 일(현지시간) 현재 누적 확진자는 60 만 3 천 338 명이고 사망자는 1 만 2 천 843 명이라고 밝혔다.
로이터통신 정부 집계와 세계보건기구(WHO) 데이터에 따르면 남아공은 아프리카 전체 확진자의 절반 이상이고 사망자 비중은 대륙의 47% 정도이다.
7 월 중 1 만 3 천명 이상으로 정점을 찍었던 일일 신규 확진자는 이날
3 천 398 명이었다. 21 일 기준 2 만 4 천 224 건의 검사 대비 확진율은 14%였다.
완치자는 50 만 102 명으로 완치율은 82%였다.
남아공은 전세계적으로 미국, 브라질, 인도, 러시아 다음으로 확진자가 많다.
남아공 최장수 116 세 할아버지 블롬 타계
송고시간 2020-08-23 07:00
지난 5월 8일 116번째 생일을 맞은 당시의 블롬 옹
[AFP=연합뉴스 자료사진]
(요하네스버그=연합뉴스) 김성진 특파원 = 남아프리카공화국 최장수 할아버지인 프레디 블롬이 116 세를 일기로 타계했다고 현지매체들이 22 일(현지시간) 전했다.
고(故)블롬 옹은 1918 년 스페인 독감 팬데믹(세계적 대유행)도 거쳤으며 비공인 기록으로는 세계 최고령이었다.
그는 2 주 동안 침대 신세를 지며 잠시 아팠고 음식 들기를 거부한 뒤 이날 아침 케이프타운 근처 델프트 자택에서 숨졌다.
1904 년 5 월 8 일 이스턴케이프주 아델레이드에서 태어난 고인은 올해 116 번째 생일을 맞아 AFP 통신과 인터뷰에서 "하나님의 은혜로 이렇게 오래 살았다"고 말했다.
블롬 옹은 10 대 때 가족 모두가 스페인 독감에 휩쓸려 사망하고 혼자 살아남았다.
그는 46 년간 결혼 생활을 한 아내 지네트의 세 아이를 거둬 자기 자식으로 키웠으며 그동안 여섯 손주를 뒀다.
가족 대변인인 안드레 나이두는 "할아버지께선 2 주 전만 해도 장작을 팰 정도로 정정하셨다. 그는 정말 강인하고 자부심이 가득한 사람이었다"고 다정하게
기억했다.
고인은 106 세까지 정원사로 일했다.
sungjin@yna.co.kr
