Thursday 4 February - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za)
Page 2 – CYRIL SLAMMED FOR SNUBBING INDIA
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 1 – ‘President must answer to Zondo’
Citizen (www.citizen.co.za) Page 1 – When will rain stop?
연합뉴스 (www.yonhapnews.co.kr)
스페인 코로나 사망 열달만에 최다…남아공·브라질발 항공금지
CYRIL SLAMMED FOR SNUBBING INDIA
President under fire for not expressing gratitude to SII for delivering vaccines to SA
• Pretoria News
• 4 Feb 2021
• SAMKELO MTSHALI, ZINTLE MAHLATI AND LIAM NGOBENI
ELMOND JIYANE
GCISHEALTH Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, Deputy President David Mabuza and President Cyril Ramaphosa took delivery of the 1 million AstraZeneca vaccines on Monday. |
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has come under fire for failing to acknowledge the Serum Institute of India (SII) during his address to the nation on Monday night for its allocation to South Africa’s of our first batch of vaccines.
The first consignment of vaccines, which arrived in South Africa earlier that day, was sourced from AstraZeneca, whose Covishield vaccine was developed in partnership with Oxford University. The doses were produced at the SII.
After two weeks of quality checks at the National Health Services national laboratory facility in Bloemfontein, the vaccines will be distributed to all nine provinces and be administered to healthcare workers in both the private and public sectors.
In a letter by Kirshen Naidoo & Company Inc attorneys, representing clients it refers to as
“various citizens and organisations within the Republic of South Africa”, the president is accused of failure to thank the Indian government and the Serum Institute for allocating the vaccines to South Africa.
The law firm said its clients had noted that the South African government and Ramaphosa had highly publicised the arrival of the vaccines from India, celebrating the same and taking credit for the event.
“Our clients note with disappointment that during your address to the nation… you had failed to thank the Indian government and the Serum
Institute of India for their consideration and generosity but chose to praise and recognise pharmaceutical companies, a cellphone company and the people and government of Cuba.
“Your failure to thank the Indian government, the Serum Institute of India and the people of India who had made the arrival of the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines to South Africa possible was insulting, inconsiderate and disgraceful,” said the law firm.
They added that India maintained strong ties with South Africa due to the fact that people of Indian origin have made South Africa their home and “not because our government is considerate, grateful and diplomatic”.
“Our clients are well aware of the politics that prevails within our government that influences your decisions which are mostly prejudicial and contrary to the best interests of the people of South Africa.
“We are instructed to demand that you publicly address the nation in order to apologise for your failure to thank
the Indian government, the Serum Institute of India and the people of India for their generous allocation of vaccines to South Africa which was desperately needed,” the law firm said.
“We trust that you would afford our clients the courtesy of a response hereto and act with gratitude, honour and integrity.”
Presidency spokesperson Tyrone Seale said the matter was receiving attention.
Meanwhile, as the Department of Health officially launched the online vaccination data system where healthcare workers who form part of phase 1 of the vaccination drive will be required to register to be inoculated, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has told Parliament that vaccination side-effects will be closely monitored.
SAHPRA chief executive Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela appeared before Parliament's health committee yesterday.
Her organisation faced tough questions from MPs on the regulatory measures used to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Semete-Makokotlela told MPs that SAHPRA would keep a close eye on the vaccination process, especially on reports of the side-effects.
She also told MPs that SAHPRA would in the next few weeks decide on Pfizer’s application for regulatory approval for the distribution of its vaccine.
So far, more than 34 000 healthcare professionals have registered on the Electronic Vaccination Data System site.
Political analyst Professor Lesiba Teffo said there had been oversight from the Presidency by not showing gratitude to the Indian government or the SII.
He said it was difficult to discern if there would be any implications regarding South Africa/India relations as it was not known whose mandate the firm was acting upon.
Political analyst Dr Metji Makgoba added that while the law firm was attempting to turn the matter into a public relations stunt, it had a point. “The president should have shown gratitude for the speedy delivery for the vaccine,” he said.
‘President must answer to Zondo’
• The Star Early Edition
• 4 Feb 2021
• SIVIWE FEKETHA siviwe.feketha@inl.co.za
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has to account for his role in the deployment of many
questionable officials, who had been at the helm of state-owned companies during his stint as former president Jacob Zuma’s deputy in the ANC between 2013 and 2017.
This is according to DA leader John Steenhuisen, as the official opposition drums up its campaign against the ANC’s cadre deployment committee, which is chaired by the party’s deputy president.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa was for many years the chairperson of the ANC’s cadre deployment committee and had been responsible for a lot of the people that had gone on to serve on SA state-owned enterprises, and boards, the Hlaudi Motsoenengs, the Brian Molefes
… all of them have gone through the deployment committee,” Steenhuisen said yesterday.
He said Ramaphosa could not always express shock at revelations of state capture without taking some accountability.
This comes as the DA is taking its opposition to the ANC's cadre deployment policy to the Commission of Inquiry into state capture, as it pushes the inquiry to grill Ramaphosa about it when he takes the stand this year.
The DA on Tuesday prepared a list of questions which it called on Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and the commission’s legal team to put to Ramaphosa.
Steenhuisen added that the president must explain why the governing party was still
implementing the deployment policy, which he said aided state capture through ensuring that state institutions were staffed by officials loyal to the ANC. He blasted the policy as being unconstitutional as it favoured employees based on their political allegiance.
He said the country’s problems could continue if the commission failed to address the ANC’s cadre deployment policy, and how it helped cause state capture. “The list of state capture scandals revealed at the Zondo commission extends far beyond the Guptas, but never beyond the ANC. The ANC is the common denominator in all state capture scandals because it is the ANC that captured the state, not the Guptas,” Steenhuisen said.
Ramaphosa had to be grilled about heading the ANC’s cadre deployment committee between 2013 and 2017.
ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe and the party’s head of presidency Sibongile Besani could not be reached by the time of publication.
The governing party was drawn into controversy last year when a memorandum with its letterhead, and addressed to ministers, pointed out that all deployments of director-generals, chairpersons, chief executives and those on boards of state-owned companies had to be first run through the office of the party’s deputy general secretary.The ANC, however, distanced itself from the memorandum.
When will rain stop?
The South African Weather Service says the current wet weather is likely to prevail for some time, but a resident on a property at the Vaal Dam and a farmer’s union are not complaining.
• The Citizen (Gauteng)
• 4 Feb 2021
• Marizka Coetzer marizkac@citizen.co.za
Picture: Michel Bega
Property owner at Vaal Dam says they are grateful for the downpours.
Don’t expect the rain to stop any time soon as downpours are expected to continue for the immediate future – and expand across the country. South African Weather Service forecaster Tokelo Chiloane said heavier prolonged rain and thunderstorms were predicted for the next few days.
“The Free State experienced a lot of rain the past 24 hours and it will continue for the next two days, with an 80% chance of rain expected.”
Chiloane said rain was expected to spread to parts of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and the Free State today.
“We are expecting more thunderstorms for the rest of the week compared to the constant rain we recently experienced,” he said.
Chihloane said in the 24 hours from Tuesday to yesterday, North West recorded 80mm of rain while the Free State recorded 66mm and Vereeniging 27mm. Johannesburg had less.
Some parts of the Free State have been dry for so long that boats at the Vaal Marina could only be put back into the water for the first time in almost two years this past week.
Kathy Mante, an owner at Matte Marina on the Vaal Dam at Deneysville in the Free state since 1975, said they were grateful for the rain in the past few days.
However, Mante said they were preparing for floods should the Vaal Dam reach its 105%
capacity.
“The water is currently coming into the Vaal Dam at 1 000 cubic meters per second and the dam was at 82.4% [yesterday] morning,” she said.
Mante said the surrounding dams where the water would usually flow to when the slices were opened were currently full, hence they anticipated a flood when the slices do open.
“We are elated by the rain. It has been a lovely rainy season. The previous year it would only rain a little then followed the extreme heat and drought,” she said.
“In December we didn’t have boats in the dock.
“The water was still too low. It only started raining regularly about a week ago.”
Mante said when the dam levels got as low as they have recently been – below 50% – they have to take the boats out of the dock.
“In 2019 during the drought, the water level dropped to under 30% and we had to take out most of the boats.”
Mante said in December last year it started raining but the dam level never rose above 50%.
“In 2020 the drought continued. Besides the Covid-19 relations prohibiting the boats from sailing, the low water levels also contributed to the already fragile boat industry.”
She also said the Vaal Dam had been so low for the past few years they could not remember when last their water was supplied from the dam.
Mitchell Krog from AfriWX Weather said there was an increase in the rain recorded this season compared to previous years.
The Bronkhorstspruit area has already recorded 127mm of rain for January, while
Johannesburg only recorded 85mm and 185mm was recorded in the Pretoria/ Proefplaas area.
Bertus van der Westhuizen, chairperson of Transvaalse Landbou-unie, has welcomed the recent heavy rains.
“Last year, we struggled due to the drought. The harvest wasn’t what it should be,” he said.
“A wet harvest is better than a dry harvest.” – We are elated by the rain
국가기간뉴스 통신사 연합뉴스
인쇄닫기
스페인 코로나 사망 열달만에
최다…남아공·브라질발 항공금지
(파리=연합뉴스) 현혜란 특파원 = 스페인에서 지난해 4 월 이후 가장 많은 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(코로나 19) 신규 사망자가 발생했다.
스페인 보건부는 2 일(현지시간) 코로나 19 사망자가 전날보다 724 명 증가해 5 만 9 천 805 명으로 집계됐다고 밝혔다.
이는 지난해 봄 스페인 전역에 강도 높은 봉쇄령이 내려진 이후 사상 최다 기록이다.
북서부 갈리시아, 남부 안달루시아 지방에서는 각각 40 명, 107 명이 코로나 19 로 숨져 대유행 이후 최다 기록을 세웠다고 일간 엘파이스가 전했다.
스페인에서는 새해 들어 매일 같이 2 만∼3 만명씩 코로나 19 확진자가 쏟아지고 있으며, 그 여파로 병원에 가해지는 압력도 커지고 있다.
총 17 개의 광역자치주 중 7 개 자치주에서 코로나 19 환자가 중환자실 절반 이상을 차지하고 있다.
코로나 19 확산세가 다시 강해진 데에는 전파력이 강한 변이 바이러스의 등장도 한몫했다는 게 중앙정부의 판단이다.
이에 남아프리카공화국, 브라질에서 출발하는 항공기 운항을 3 일 오전 9 시부터 최소 2 주 동안 중단하기로 했다.
스페인 정부는 지난해 12 월 22 일부터 또 다른 변이 바이러스가 발생한 영국에서 출발하는 비행편의 운항도 금지하고 있다.
새로 취임한 카롤리나 다리아스 보건부 장관은 코로나 19 확진자와 사망자 규모를 줄일 수 있도록 각 자치주에 추가 대책 마련을 촉구했다.
스페인에서는 자치주별로 서로 다른 코로나 19 방역 대책을 마련해 시행하고 있다.
