South Africa: Today’s latest news and headlines, Monday 8 June

Stay informed and up to date with the latest news in South Africa by reviewing the day’s major headlines on Monday 8 June.

As South Africa enters its second week of Level 3 lockdown, parents will be sending off their children to school this morning after Motshekga announced the reopening of schools after their countrywide closure on 18 March due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

The grade 7 and 12 learners — who are first in line according to the department’s phasing-in approach of the various grades — amount to 1.6 million or 13.4% of the 13.1 million learners in South Africa.

Today’s latest news in South Africa, Monday 8 June

Most schools declared ready for the ‘new normal’

The minister of basic education confessed to “sleepless nights”, but despite remaining water and sanitation challenges, Motshekga announced at a media briefing on Sunday afternoon that 95% of schools will be reopening their doors to receive grade 7 and 12 learners on Monday 8 June.

This follows a “mop-up week” after the initial reopening date of 1 June was postponed amid delays in sanitation procedures, water provision and the delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE).

The vandalism of 1 672 schools across the country since the beginning of lockdown on 27 March has also added to the department’s woes.

According to Motshekga any further delay to resume formal schooling will disadvantage learners.

South African schools have been closed since mid-March after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the country on 5 March.

Despite being confident in the progress made over the past week, Motshekga said it is still “too risky to allow the blanket reopening of schools” and that the “golden rule” would be that no school will reopen if not ready to do so.

However, she also stressed that “no learners will be left behind”:

“For the remaining 5% or so learners, alternative measures have been developed by different districts, such as temporarily using neighbouring schools, using under-utilised spaces in boarding schools and putting other learners in camps,” Motshekga explained.

Government committed to deal with the 5% of schools that do not have PPE, as well as continued assistance by Rand Water to put all the tankers and water tanks in place at schools.

“Because some of the alternatives need consultations with parents, provinces will be engaging parents and following the appropriate protocols to get parental concessions. All of this, we agreed, should be finalised during the course of the week and recovery programmes be implemented,” said the minister.

The teaching and learning programmes provided online will continue and parents who are uneasy about sending their children back to school, must follow the law to ensure that their children’s right to basic education is unhindered.

“We are also cooperating with the Department of Transport to ensure that learner transport provided does meet the health, safety and social distancing measures and requirements on COVID-19.  This will include scholar transport for learners with special education needs.”

The South African wishes all learners (and their parents) well as they venture into the uncharted territory of the “new normal”.

‘Alcohol plus COVID-19’ reduce access to medical care

Healthcare facilities reported a surge in alcohol-related injuries during the first week of the lifting of the ban on alcohol sales.

Trauma specialists said that during the first two months of lockdown, trauma admissions dropped by 70% at hospitals in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

But according to a prediction made by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), 5 000 patients a week will flood hospitals with injuries related to alcohol.

Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa calling on South Africans to “behave in a manner that would take into account the rights of other people”, alcohol-related trauma has turned out to be a new nightmare at hospitals at a time when ICU beds are needed for COVID-19 patients and staff shortages are exacerbated by infections among frontline workers.

At least 10 liquor outlets in KwaZulu-Natal were also closed during last week for contravening regulations governing the sale of alcohol, such as not closing according to new trading times, not ensuring social distancing between patrons or hand sanitising, selling expired liquor, as well as the non-screening of employees.

DA to lodge appeal for provincial statistics

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has lodged a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application appeal for COVID-19 provincial statistics, according to DA Shadow Minister of Health Siviwe Gwarube.

The party’s application to the Department of Health to access COVID-19 modeling that the government was using to prepare the health system and the breakdown of provincial statistics on infections, recoveries, fatalities and capacity of each sub-district, has been denied.

“This latest refusal to publish a detailed breakdown of the state of readiness in the provinces and information that will assist in painting an accurate picture of how the provinces are dealing with this pandemic, is deeply concerning,” said Gwarube.

He raised as one of the party’s concern the fact that South Africa only has 5000 ICU beds across both the public and private health system.

“That is thousands of beds short of the minimum of 20 000 that is needed as we near the peak of infections.It has now been reported that during the past several weeks, South Africa has only added 207 critical beds in the public health system.

“If we are being denied information on the capacity of the system per sub-district, it means we are unable to hold government accountable and ensure that they have done the work of capacitating the health system,” Gwarube argued.

Mbalula puts brakes on taxi fare increases

In a statement on Sunday 7 June, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula urged taxi associations and operators to be mindful of the poor in determining the fares.

This follows the announcement by Gauteng taxi association Armsta that it will hike its prices by 172%, citing fuel price increase and pressures of operating under COVID-19 regulations.

The minister, however, warned the taxi industry that current regulations prevent illegal profiteering and that he would consider approaching the Competition Commission to assess if the fare prices are fair and justifiable.

“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”

Minister to hand over title deeds in Delft

Human Settlements Minister Tertuis Simmers will hand over 16 title deeds to recipients in Delft on Monday 8 June.

The handover has been made possible through our Enhanced Extended Discounted Benefit Scheme (EEDBS) and is part of the department’s strategic goal in prioritising the elderly by ensuring ownership of their properties.

Simmers said: “I’m looking forward to handing over these title deeds to our beneficiaries, particularly since 15 of the 16 recipients are pensioners, with the eldest being 84 – and youngest 58 years old”.

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