EAST LONDON – While listeriosis has resulted in a high death rate, not everyone has died from exposure to the bacteria.
Lindiwe Ndamase’s stepdaughter Luleka (40) is in Frere Hospital in East London.
Luleke was diagnosed with listeriosis.
Travelling every day by taxi to visit Luleka has put a strain on Lindiwe’s already meagre finances.
* eNCA reporter Sandy McCowen visited a patient recovering from listeriosis. Watch the video in the gallery above.
eNCA
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Cape Town – Reports indicate that Proteas wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock was called a “bush pig” by the Australians.
WATCH: Warner, De Kock in ugly spat
It was reported on Monday that personal insults were at the root of a row between De Kock and Australia’s David Warner during the tea break of the fourth day of the first Test in Durban.
CCTV footage showed Warner apparently turning on De Kock as the players walked up a narrow staircase leading to the dressing rooms at the start of the interval at Kingsmead.
After Australia’s 118-run win on Monday, the visitors’ captain Steve Smith pointed towards De Kock as the instigator.
It is believed that De Kock made a derogatory remark about Warner’s wife.
“Those sorts of things are not on from both sides,” Smith said at his post-match press conference.
“Getting personal on the field is not on. We were certainly very chirpy out in the field as well. As far as I’m aware, we didn’t get personal towards Quinton.
“What he said got a little bit personal towards Davey and, as we saw, it certainly provoked an emotional response.”
However, reports indicate that the Australians also got personal with De Kock.
Afrikaans website Netwerk24 said De Kock was labelled as a “bush pig” by the Australians, while The Guardian in England reported that it was Warner who called De Kock a “bush pig”.
Netwerk24 further reported that De Kock hit back after the Australians also made remarks about his mother and sister.
South African captain Faf du Plessis said the umpires needed to ensure proper behaviour on the field.
“From what I’ve heard there was a lot of personal stuff being said, to and from. Who started it, I don’t know. If it was happening on the field it should have been nipped in the bud.
“The fact that it spilled over after the field shouldn’t have happened.”
Whooping cough (pertussis) used to be regarded as an illness of the past, and only dangerous to children.
Now, however, it seems to have made a comeback, not only in young children, but also in older children and adults who had received vaccinations expected to last a lifetime.
It appears that the vaccination is starting to lose its effectiveness between the ages of five and 10, leaving older children and adults susceptible.
What is whooping cough?
Pertussis is a highly contagious infection caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium. This illness causes 300 000 annual deaths worldwide and is recognised by a paroxysmal (spastic, intense) cough with a distinct whooping sound.
It can be avoided through vaccination, which has reduced the number of cases in recent decades.
Pertussis is a serious respiratory condition that can be deadly, especially in young babies or children with weak immune systems.
The illness that came back
Vaccination initially decreased the number of whooping cough infections, but it appears to have made a comeback since the 1980s. There has been a noticeable surge in the past couple of years, especially in the USA.
According to a paper published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, pertussis is naturally cyclic and peaks every three to five years. But for the past couple of decades the instances of peaks and the number of cases have increased.
Medical practitioners and researchers are puzzled at the surge of the disease since the 1980s and especially the peak between 1990 and 1999.
Some say it’s because many parents choose not to vaccinate their children due to risks and side effects, while others think that it is because adults are now spreading the disease. People, especially in the USA, tend to think that pertussis is being brought in by unvaccinated visitors from other countries.
Research indicates that there might be a problem with the longevity of the original vaccine – anyone who received the vaccine 12 years ago or longer will have a breakdown in immunity.
This is why more and more adults seem to be succumbing to whooping cough. The need for a booster shot is now recognised.
How to protect yourself and your children
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NCID), pertussis can be prevented by active immunisation. In South Africa, the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (SA-EPI) schedule includes four doses of acellular pertussis vaccine, including a booster shot.
The primary series is given in three doses at six, 10 and 14 weeks of age. The fourth dose (booster) is given at 18 months. However, immunity after vaccination is not lifelong and wanes over time. As a result, and as per previous research, boosters are now recommended after four to eight years to maintain protective levels.
When someone is diagnosed with pertussis, people who have had close contact with the sick person can take prophylaxis (medication that prevents infection) to avoid infection, regardless of their age or whether they have been vaccinated before.
Could you have pertussis?
Pertussis is often misdiagnosed in adults because it is still widely believed to be an illness that only affects children. The symptoms also mimic other conditions such as asthma, bronchitis and allergies.
The disease lasts about six weeks, and has three stages. The incubation period lasts an average of seven to 14 days. The symptoms throughout the three stages are:
1. Cold-like symptoms such as a runny nose, teary eyes and congestion. A hacking night cough may be present, which can gradually worsen.
2. An intense cough after the 10th to the 14th day of the illness – this is a rapid, wet cough characterised by wet, stringy mucus and a whooping sound, followed by rapid inhalation.
3. Decreasing symptoms, but a cough may still be present.
When should you see your doctor?
Go to your medical practitioner immediately when:
Image credit: iStock
Bloemfontein – A marathon corruption case in the Free State involving dodgy tenders awarded by the province’s department of education has culminated in the conviction of a close associate of Premier Ace Magashule.
Isaac “Blacky” Seoe, a former business partner of both Magashule and one of his sons, Tshepiso, was found guilty on charges of corruption, fraud and other related crimes in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein in February.
Seoe is the same Free State businessman who can be seen on CCTV video footage accompanying the premier and officials from the Free State Development Corporation (FDC) on a site visit to a Shell fuel station in Phuthaditjhaba in the eastern Free State in 2014.
News24 recently revealed that Magashule’s daughter secured the fuel station in a questionable property deal with the FDC.
– Read: Magashule and daughter in money-for-jam property scandal
Seoe, who is a former chairperson of the FDC, was first implicated in a corruption racket back in 2001 along with 12 co-accused, including Tebogo Lioma, the provincial education department’s former deputy director-general.
The court has now found Seoe and one of his co-accused guilty of bribing Lioma in order to influence a tender for learning materials awarded to a company called Mabolela Distributors by the provincial education department in 2001.
The court also found that Mabolela Distributors was a front set up by Seoe, resulting in a guilty conviction on a count of fraud.
The contract awarded to Mabolela formed part of tenders worth around R30m awarded to several companies by Lioma’s department.
Seoe was also convicted on counts of money laundering and racketeering resulting from the corrupt tender.
Seoe and his 12 co-accused will be sentenced in May. Virginia Moseia, Seoe’s former wife, is among the accused.
In 2013, Seoe and Moseia unsuccessfully applied for a permanent stay of prosecution.
Links to the premier
The controversial Free State businessman is linked to Magashule and his family.
In 2011, amaBhungane reported that Magashule’s office had signed off on a government lease deal with Sambal Investment, a company in which the premier and Seoe were once co-directors.
Company records also show that Seoe and Tshepiso Magashule, the premier’s eldest son, were co-directors in a company called Chitoss Trading. This company was deregistered in 2015.
Seoe was also present when Magashule and his daughter, Thoko Malembe, along with officials from the FDC, visited the Shell fuel station in Phuthaditjhaba in 2014.
The MMAT Trust, of which Malembe is a trustee, bought this property from the FDC in a questionable deal that saw the trust pocket R9m as a result of a favourable lease agreement with Shell. Malembe’s trust also bought the fuel station site from the FDC with the upfront rental it received from Shell.
Magashule’s daughter has done at least one business deal with Seoe.
According to deeds records, her MMAT Trust in 2017 bought a property in the Free State town of Kestell from Robs Properties, a company of which Seoe is the sole director.
TIMELINE: How Magashule’s daughter scored R9m in property scandal
Seoe put the phone down when News24 phoned him for comment. He did not respond to a request for comment sent to him through WhatsApp.
“The honourable premier is aware that a Mr Seoe has been convicted of a crime or crimes, the details of which are not known to the honourable premier,” said Tiisetso Makhele, Magashule’s spokesperson.
Makhele said that there is no relationship between Magashule and Seoe, despite the company records that indicate they were once business partners. Makhele did not respond to a query about why Seoe and Magashule had visited the Shell fuel station in Phuthaditjhaba together.
“In regard to the premier’s son, you should be aware of the Provisions of the Executive Ethics Code, issued in terms of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act, in terms of which the details of the financial interests of a child of the Member of the Executive is confidential and access to that information is limited to only the Public Protector and the Secretary of the Executive Council,” claimed Makhele.
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Johannesburg – The Constitutional Court is on Tuesday expected to hear an application by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to extend the Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) contract by six months.
Roughly 2.5 million beneficiaries will not get their grant payments if the contract with CPS is not extended, the agency argued in court papers.
READ: 2.5 million grant recipients don’t have personal identification numbers to access grants
This contract expires on March 31, 2018.
Sassa’s concern is for the 29% of grant beneficiaries, most of whom live in rural areas and depend on cash deliveries of their social grants, a service that is currently provided by CPS.
Last Wednesday, acting CEO Pearl Bhengu and new Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu appeared in Parliament to update MPs on Sassa and the department’s state of readiness to migrate the nation’s social grants scheme from CPS by April 1.
Sassa has less than a month in which to fully migrate core components of the grants scheme from CPS, as ordered by the Constitutional Court, to the South African Post Office (SAPO), as agreed in December 2017.
ALSO READ: Shabangu in charge of Sassa migration for now – Cabinet
Bhengu told Parliament that there had been very important developments since Sassa requested an extension of the CPS contract in February, including the setting of a court date, March 6.
“We are waiting to hear if the court will grant us that six-month phase-in, phase-out of CPS. The court will say yes or no,” she said at the time.
Bhengu assured MPs that all payments starting from April would come from Sassa’s corporate account, not CPS’s.
This includes payments to the 5.7 million people who had Grindrod Bank cards.
“On April 1, everyone will be paid, whether CPS is here or not. The only problem may be at the [cash] pay points.
She added that there was a contingency plan in place, should the court say no to the six-month extension.
CPS wins right to participate in future tenders
Bhengu said beneficiaries who use cash pay points, roughly 2.9 million people according to the inter-ministerial committee, had already been categorised.
SAPO chief operating officer Lindiwe Kwele previously told Parliament that, whatever the court’s decision, in principle, SAPO would still be in charge of the scheme come April 1.
The “phase-in, phase-out” period was merely to ensure a smooth transition, she said.
READ: Post Office clarifies Sassa’s request for CPS extension
The Constitutional Court ruled last month that CPS may participate in future Sassa tender processes, as allowed for by the law.
CPS had argued it was not consistent to bar the company from bidding for all future tenders as a result of its current contract being declared invalid.
The March 2017 judgment “did not render CPS ineligible to participate in Sassa’s tender process”, the court’s notice read.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), on behalf of the Black Sash Trust, said it would be in court on Tuesday to ensure that the social grants system and its beneficiaries are protected when the unlawful contract between Sassa and CPS comes to an end later this month.
It said it was unable to oppose the application, given the “significant risk posed to grant beneficiaries”.
Attorney at CALS Wandisa Phama said the agency had known since December 18, 2017, that it would require a CPS cash payment extension.
“It delayed for nearly eight weeks before bringing this application. The conduct of Sassa is unexplained. The silence of the minister of social development is deafening.”
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When you think of a ballerina body, you may picture a petite, slender physique. But many dancers have rejected that rigid idea of what a ballerina is supposed to look like—and instead, they've led a shift towards embracing a diverse range of athletic ballerina bodies. One woman who's played a major role in that movement is none other than Misty Copeland, the iconic principle dancer at the American Ballet Theater.
“We are real women and ballerinas, muscular, feminine but also strong, lithe but also curvaceous,” Copeland writes in her new book, Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You ($30, amazon.com). But Copeland doesn’t pretend she always felt so confident in her skin. “None of it was easy. Not my climb in the ballet world, not my arrival at a place of personal contentment and peace, not my journey to the body I stand in.”
Her book is her way of helping other women reach the same state of body confidence that she now exudes to the world. “I dream of sharing what I’ve learned—of showing women everywhere how to reach their body goals and achieve what they see as their best selves," she says.
For Copeland, that has meant prioritizing exercise, as an integral and positive element of her day. “Working out, so essential to our mental and physical well-being, can and should be woven through every part of our lives,” Copeland says.
Below are four exercises that she incorporates in her cross-training routine, to help maintain her ideal ballerina body—“one that is lean but sinewy, with muscles that are long, sculpted, and toned.” But you certainly don't have to be a dancer to reap the benefits of these challenging moves. Try them out to get toned from head to (pointed) toe.
“Relevé” means “raised,” or lifted, and describes the position when you rise onto the balls of your feet (demi-pointe) or onto the toes (pointe) of one or both feet.
a. Begin in first position. Demi-plié, then stretch your knees and rise onto demi-pointe (relevé). Repeat this three times and old on the count of four. When done to music, the counts are to the timing of the music.
b. Repeat once. When you get stronger, you may do four repetitions.
Remember to hold your posture. The flexing and pointing also prepare and strengthen your ankles to allow you to stand on demi-pointe (or en pointe, if you are an advanced dancer).
“Adagio” refers to the slow movement in the ballet technique. As much as the adagio is about flexibility, strength, and fluidity in the movement, learning this exercise on the floor will give you an advantage before approaching it standing. On the floor you acquire a sense of balance and where your weight should be in order to leverage it to make you legs appear higher and more extended in opposition to our upper body.
This exercise should be done slowly to improve balance, alignment, abdominal strength, and stamina.
a. Start by sitting with your legs together on the floor in front of you.
b. Lift your legs into the air by bending your knees, holding the backs of your things with your hands with your legs still bent and parallel to each other.
c. Leaning back, with your back straight and the backs of your thighs (hamstrings) leaning into your hands, slowly lengthen both legs into the air until they are fully straight, making you into a V shape. Bend your knees so the tips of your toes touch the floor. Now do the same with each leg, alone, keeping the tips of the toes of your other leg posed on the floor.
d. Repeat the sequence, beginning with the other leg, when doing the single-leg section.
This exercise is great for freeing and lengthening the spine and for centering and strengthening the core.
a. Begin lying on your back, your legs together and parallel and your feet pointed.
b. Bend your legs slowly, bringing them off the floor, still bent, and lifting your feet off the floor as well, while your back hugs the ground.
c. Keeping your lower back on the floor and your shoulder blades drawn down toward your waist, curl your upper back off the floor, around your lower abs. Your arms should act like seaweed being moved by the motion of the tides, around and behind your lifted legs.
d. Float your upper back and arms down to the floor, legs still bent, body still energized.
e. Repeat four times, bringing your legs gently toward your head as your core and upper body lift, igniting the lower abdominal muscles.
f. After the last time, hold one hand or wrist (depending on the length of your arms) with the other, behind your thighs.
g. Lengthen your legs straight into the air, pressing the backs of your legs into your arms.
h. Propel your legs to the floor, arms still around them, until you get close to the floor. Then open your arms to the sides and move them forward toward your feet, over your head.
i. Your upper back should bend forward over your legs as you transition from lying to sitting, with the backs of your hands on the floor to help stabilize and keep the backs of your legs on the floor.
j. Roll down through your spine until your back is on the floor and you are in the starting position, with your shoulders relaxed. Repeat two to four times.
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“Dégagé” means “disengaged.” When preparing for dégagés in particular, but whenever you’re lying on the floor, you should feel like you are standing or jumping—not lying on the sand at the beach!
This exercise is good for length, strength, and alignment. Be sure to press the parts of your back and body that are touching the surface of the floor to the floor, allowing your working leg to float up, initiating the movement with your inner thighs and the backs of the legs rather than the top of your thighs (quadriceps).
a. Begin lying on your back with your feet in first position (heels together and toes apart, feet pointed).
b. Place your arms at your sides with your palms facing down; you can vary the positioning of your arms depending on what makes you comfortable, as long as your arms don’t go above your shoulders.
c. Keep your legs elongated, straight on the floor.
d. Use your palms and arms by pressing them to the floor. This will help to strengthen 
your core and align the spine.
e. Lift one leg two or three inches from the floor, with your toes still pointed out, by pressing the standing leg (again, whether you’re standing or lying on the floor, the standing leg is the one that is not moving; it helps to maintain balance), your arms, and your head into the floor. This will help you to lift the working leg while maintaining stability throughout your body. Do four dégagés with one leg front, then switch legs and do four with the other leg front.
f. Now do four dégagés to each side. For these, your working leg stays on the floor, brushing along the floor as it extends to the side. Do not disturb the balance of the pelvis or the back as you move the working leg.
Excerpted from the book BALLERINA BODY by Misty Copeland. Copyright 
2017 by Misty Copeland. Reprinted with permission of Grand Central Life & Style. All rights reserved.
