South Africa: Today’s latest news and headlines, Monday 18 January

Eskom dropped a depressing bomb on South Africans on Sunday evening, informing the public that they’ll need to stock up on candles once more as load shedding continues for a second consecutive week. These and other headlines you’ll want to keep an eye on can be found right here.  

TODAY’S LATEST NEWS IN SOUTH AFRICA, Monday 18 January   

COVID-19 latest    

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced the latest COVID-19 figures on Sunday 17 January, saying that across the country, cases have increased by 12 267 in the last 24-hours, meaning that the total number of infections that have been accumulatively reported since March 2020 has risen to 1 337 926. 

Sadly, over the last 24-hours alone, a further 254 people have died from COVID-19, meaning that a total of 37 105 people have succumbed to the virus since the first death in March 2020. 

He also reported that there have been 1 098 441 recoveries in total, with 7 613 470 tests completed.

Eskom announce more load shedding for the coming week

Embattled state-owned power supplier Eskom has once again assumed the role as the bearer of bad news by announcing that load shedding will persit into the new week, with stage two blackout schedules set to resume early on Monday morning. Eskom blamed delays returning some generation units to service, as well as the need to manage the emergency generation reserves and identified risks to the power system fr the latest round of load shedding.

“Despite Eskom’s stringent measures to manage the impact of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations, we are experiencing some impact on operations, including our suppliers,” they said. “For example at the Medupi power station we have had 48 positive cases out of a pool of 75 contractors, which has negatively affected our ability to executive work as planned.”

DA to lodge complaint against vaccine rollout strategy

Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen, will on Monday 18 January be announcing the launch of the party’s legal action regarding national government’s vaccine procurement and rollout strategy. 

The DA have demanded that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration deliver a “streamlined implementation of a detailed vaccine roll-out plan from a national level is urgently needed” that includes a successful procurement plan, acquisition, and equitable distribution of the vaccine.

They also seek “wholesale improvement of the healthcare system across the country.Design legislation that would look at provide universal healthcare in South Africa without enabling the flawed NHI which the DA does not support”. We’ll be on hand to deliver you the latest from the opposition party.

Orlando Pirates crash to shock defeat against Black Leopards

Soweto giants Orlando Pirates crashed to a shock defeat against lowly Black Leopards in their DStv Premiership clash on Sunday after took a shock 29th-minute lead at a wet Thohoyandou Stadium thanks to an own-goal by Buccaneers defender Innocent Maela. the loss is

Despite the loss, Pirates remain in 5th spot on the log, and will next be in action at home against Golden Arrows on Wednesday 20 January. Black Leopard, on the other hand, Black Leopards moved out of the relegation zone and up to 16th place in the standings.

“We were completely out of it in the first-half, the first-half I don’t know what we did but it was not what we spoke about before,” Pirates manager Josef Zinnbauer told SuperSport TV. “When you play a relegation team, they run, they fight for the three points, they give 100 percent, more than 100 percent.

“We stayed on the field, watched a little bit of the game, you cannot win the game if you don’t play in the first-half, it’s not possible.”

LATEST WEATHER FORECAST, Monday 18 January    

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Horoscope today

Free daily horoscope, celeb gossip and lucky numbers for Monday 18 January .