Category Archives: South African News

News24.com | Covid-19: SA records highest daily increase after 17 710 new cases

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SA has recorded its highest ever number of daily Covid-19 infections.

SA has recorded its highest ever number of daily Covid-19 infections.

Vincent Kalut / Photonews via Getty Images

South Africa has recorded the highest number daily number of new Covid-19 infections, with 17 710 new cases reported on Wednesday. 

In his daily report, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that the positivity rate was 33%.

“The positivity rate, being an indicator of the rapidity of spread, remains of major concern,” he said. 

READ | Covid-19: Here are the latest rules as SA reverts to Level 3

This has brought the cumulative number of cases to 1 039 161, with recoveries at 83%.

The death toll has now surpassed 28 000 and 465 deaths have been recorded, with KwaZulu-Natal recording 144 deaths since the last report. 

A total of 53 279 new tests have been conducted since the last report. 

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News24.com | LIVE | SA records highest ever daily Covid-19 infections, after 17 710 new cases

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WRAP | Ten takeaways from the media briefing led by Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister Zweli Mkhize and Minister Bheki Cele:

Alcohol will not be sold and will not be allowed to be transported. Wine tasting will not be allowed. Onsite and offsite consumption has been prohibited. 

Ministers have reiterated the curfew conditions which include: Only those with valid permits will be allowed outside during curfew hours. An exception will be made for flights landing during restricted hours. 

Restaurants, libraries, museums, cinemas, theatres will remain open to a maximum of 50 people while adhering to 1.5 metre spacing in between. Outdoor restaurants are allowed to seat a maximum of 100 people. 

Zoos, botanical gardens, aquariums will still be in operation, other parks and recreational facilities will be closed. 

Funerals will be the only gatherings allowed under adjusted Level 3 Lockdown and should be kept under a time limit of two hours, with a maximum of 50 people, if the venue permits. No after tears will be allowed. 

Initiation schools are to be closed. Those currently undergoing initiation will be allowed to conclude proceedings; however, no new initiations may take place, nor post-initiation celebrations.

No further adjustments or alterations have been made to international and interprovincial travel. Both are permitted under adjusted Level 3 Lockdown.

Establishments that only operate in the trade of alcohol, such as bars, nightclubs, shebeens and taverns, will remain closed. 

Beaches in the Northern Cape remain accessible. Dams and rivers will not be accessible nationally, other than for the purpose of water-collection for personal use.

Walking of dogs and jogging will be allowed, but not on beaches within the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

News24.com | Second Covid-19 wave hits hard in Western Cape, hospital beds scaled up to nearly 800

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Alan Winde, Western Cape premier.

Alan Winde, Western Cape premier.

Jaco Marais

  • In the Western Cape, Covid-19 is spreading faster during the current, second wave of infections than it during the first wave.
  • The Garden Route has stabilised, but the province will still monitor it closely.
  • The province secured 744 additional beds as hospitals reach capacity.

While the second wave of Covid-19 infections is hitting the Western Cape harder than the first, it appears that the Garden Route is stabilising.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo and head of the provincial health department Keith Cloete briefed the media on Tuesday.

Cloete said the province as a whole continued to see substantial increases in daily new Covid-19 cases, which are 2.4 times more than in the first wave peak – this despite limited testing due to public holidays and restricted testing criteria.

Hospitalisations and deaths continue to increase sharply. New Covid-19 admissions to hospitals are 50% higher and deaths 22% higher than during the first wave.

READ | Covid-19: Here are the latest rules as SA reverts to Level 3

The proportion of tests which return positive results continues to rise and is now at 45%, higher than the previous peak of 40%.

The Cape Town Metro continues to see steep increases in cases, with nearly double the number of new daily cases compared to the first wave peak.

All of the metro’s subdistricts have exceeded their first peak, except Klipfontein and Khayelitsha, while the Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern subdistricts all have approximately three times the cases than during the first wave peak.

Overall, the province’s rural districts have nearly two and a half times more cases now than during the first wave peak.

The second wave peak is more than double the first wave peak in all rural districts, except Central Karoo. However, the Garden Route continues to experience a stabilising, pattern. Nonetheless, the province continues to watch this area closely, given a large number of visitors in the district.

Supply

Facilities in the metro and the rural areas remain under pressure, particularly with regards to oxygen supply, and deaths are increasing.

Hospitalisations continue to increase across all districts, except for Garden Route which is stabilising.

READ | SA tops 1 million Covid-19 cases

New admissions are now well above that of the first wave peak in all districts, with hospitals also contending with a high trauma load.

Currently, there are 3 131 Covid-19 patients in acute hospitals. Of these patients, 1 885 are in public hospitals and 1 246 in private ones. The metro’s hospitals are running at an average occupancy rate of 103%. In the George area, hospitals are at 90% capacity, in the Paarl area 101%, and in the Worcester area at 94%.

In a statement released after the press conference, Winde said: “The Western Cape government has done everything it can to add capacity to the system so it can cope, but it is still under extreme pressure because of the rapidly growing number of cases caused by the new variant.

“To put it simply, the Western Cape will by the end of this week have added 744 additional beds into the system. We are also prepared to scale this up to 880 beds, which will be more than the CTICC field hospital capacity and which was only half full during the first wave.”

He said they had decided this time to put additional beds into or near existing hospitals to make more efficient use of healthcare workers and other resources, and to build the healthcare system for use well after Covid-19.

At the briefing, Cloete said the data clearly showed that, with every relaxation of alcohol regulation, trauma numbers consistently increased in response to the regulations introduced.

He said the highest number of increases in trauma cases this past year was seen on boxing day. He said the previous alcohol regulations didn’t protect health services.

Impact

Cloete said the biggest challenge is the increasing Covid-19 infection rate amongst health care workers, and the impact on staff member isolation and quarantine.

Currently, 926 health care workers, across 92 institutions are infected with Covid-19, which is 2,8% of a total staff compliment of 33 062.

However, infections in health care workers continue to increase. We continue to see an increase in HCW infections week on week.

Tygerberg Hospital is now the hospital with the most infections in the last calendar month, reflecting the increase of cases in the metro, and in the Tygerberg sub-district in particular.

Nurses make up approximately 30% of HCW infections and Doctors make up 12%.

The province is busy with a recruitment drive to increase its personnel and has already secured 103 staff members.

News24.com | Zuma must pay costs in ConCourt subpoena case, even though he didn’t participate – Zondo commission

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Former president Jacob Zuma leaves the Zondo commission.

Former president Jacob Zuma leaves the Zondo commission.

PHOTO: Gallo Images/Sowetan/Thulani Mbele

  • The Constitutional Court has reserved judgment on the Zondo commission’s urgent application to force former president Jacob Zuma to appear and answer questions.
  • The inquiry says Zuma’s decision not to participate in the case is “demonstrative of the general disdain with which he has been treating the legal system”.
  • Zuma has yet to explain why he walked out of the inquiry on 19 November – an act that the commission says amounts to criminal contempt.

The state capture inquiry contends that former president Jacob Zuma should pay the legal costs of its urgent Constitutional Court bid to compel him to give evidence – even though he chose not to participate in the case.

“We are using state funds to ensure his [Zuma’s] participation in a process where it is almost manifest that he is obliged to participate, also using state funds against somebody who has displayed a very high level of recalcitrance,” advocate Tembeka Nkgcukaitobi, for the inquiry, argued on Tuesday.

The country’s highest court, which heard the inquiry’s multi-pronged application against Zuma without the presence of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, has reserved judgment in the case.

Whatever the court decides will have potentially massive consequences for the commission, which is due to complete its work on 31 March next year and maintains that Zuma’s evidence is pivotal to that process.

ALSO READ | Can Zuma ‘say nothing’ at next Zondo hearing? No, says inquiry

Ngcukaitobi has contended that Zuma’s decision to send a one-page lawyer’s letter, rather than a formal legal notice, to the country’s highest court in response to the commission’s application against him demonstrated his “disdain for the legal system”.

In that letter, Zuma’s attorney Eric Mabuza stated that he would not participate in the case “at all”.

“Historically, we [the inquiry] have been trying to ensure that Mr Zuma participates in the proceedings of the commission.

Ngcukaitobi argued:

“His election not to participate in the proceedings before this court ‘at all’ is itself demonstrative of the general disdain with which he has been treating the legal system.”

Ngcukaitobi further pointed out that Zuma had missed the deadline given to him by the Inquiry to respond to its application and only sent his letter to the Constitutional Court after Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng issued his directions for the further progress of the case.

The letter, he said, was “a slight on the Chief Justice’s directions”.

“One cannot be generous in construing a contemptuous letter,” Ngcukaitobi said. “It was never intended to be a legally acceptable document and it came across that way. It was intended to tell everyone who intended listening or reading that, ‘actually, you can do whatever you wish, I am not participating’.”

By not participating in the case, Ngcukaitobi argued, Zuma had also chosen not to explain why he had walked out of the Inquiry – an act which the commission contends amounted to criminal contempt.

Ngcukaitobi had previously argued that it “would be wrong for Mr Zuma not to pay costs at all, in the light of his past conduct, in the light of the conduct that he has displayed before this court”.

“Mr Zuma’s conduct illustrates that he regards himself as being above the law,” he argued.

Ngcukaitobi also contends that, by bringing a challenge to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s refusal to recuse himself as inquiry chair, Zuma was “definitely playing out the system”.

While Justice Chris Jafta stressed that Zuma had the right to challenge Zondo’s decision, he agreed with Ngcukaitobi that the Constitutional Court needed to take cognisance of Zuma’s previous conduct of “delaying or trying to avoid going before the commission”.

News24.com | KwaZulu-Natal man arrested in connection with taxi shooting that claimed 4 lives

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  • Four people were killed on Sunday after the taxi they were in was shot at in KwaZulu-Natal.
  • Police arrested one person during a shootout and charged him with murder and attempted murder.
  • Two more attackers are still at large.

A KwaZulu-Natal man was arrested during a shootout with police and charged with the murder of four people who were killed when the taxi they were in was shot at over the weekend.

South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said a taxi carrying 13 people was shot at in the early hours of Sunday morning in the Cacaneni area in Ekombe.

“Four people, aged between 24 and 56, were declared dead at the scene. One passenger was injured while others escaped unharmed. Charges of murder and attempted murder were opened for investigation by the Ekombe SAPS,” Mbele said.

Investigations led police to a vehicle in Babanango in northern KwaZulu-Natal and when they approached a shootout ensued.

READ | Four arrested for Sandton residential burglary after getaway car crashes into taxi

“During the crossfire, the police managed to arrest a 40-year-old suspect. The suspect was found in possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition. Police also seized the vehicle used by the suspect,” Mbele said.

The man was charged with the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, murder and attempted murder and is set to appear in the Babanango Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Mbele said police were still on the hunt for two more attackers who fled the scene during the shootout.

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News24.com | Liquor group suggests off-premises sales as SA braces for tightened restrictions

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  • The Liquor Traders Formation called on government to consider off-premises sale of alcohol as the country navigates the second wave.
  • The group warned that a total shutdown of liquor sales would end the tavern market and the 250 000 direct jobs in the sector.
  • Tutwa Consulting senior associate Azwimpheleli Langalanga said sectors hardest hit by the initial lockdown, such as hospitality, will suffer.

The Liquor Traders Formation has called on the government to consider changes to the strictest lockdown conditions articulated in the national state of disaster, as the country’s Covid-19 cases officially passed the one million mark on Sunday.

When the national lockdown was first introduced in May, industries including liquor and tobacco were brought to a standstill, applying unbearable pressure on the South African economy as movement and gatherings were also restricted or banned.

Under level three of the national lockdown, the trade of liquor and tobacco products was allowed to continue with some restrictions. The ban on tobacco was challenged legally earlier this month, where the Western Cape High Court ruled that the ban was unconstitutional and unnecessary.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Liquor Traders Formation proposed that government’s National Coronavirus Command Council consider a measured curfew that restricts unnecessary movement while protecting tourism and alcohol restrictions which provide for off-premises sales to allow consumption at home.

Convenor of the Liquor Traders Formation Lucky Ntimane said it was disappointing to learn that many South Africans have failed to follow President Cyril Ramaphosa’s warnings to limit public gatherings in the midst of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We continue to call on our liquor traders and the public at large to observe the Covid-19 regulations as it relates to the wearing of face masks at all times, sanitising and washing our hands regularly, and observing social distancing,” said Ntimane.

Ntimane urged that liquor traders be allowed to continue the off-premises sale of alcohol as the country navigates the second wave, warning that a total shut-down of liquor sales would mean an end to the tavern market and the 250 000 direct jobs linked to the sector.

Tutwa Consulting senior associate Azwimpheleli Langalanga said sectors hardest hit by the initial lockdown such as the hospitality will suffer from limits on traveling and limits to the movement of people imposed in the December period.

“If I was government, I would only adopt measures that have a direct impact on the economy as a last resort. My focus would be more on behavioural changes among the citizens to remind people of the public health,” said Langalanga.

Langalanga said South Africa did not have the luxury of putting the economy in chains and government should rather focus on getting citizens to appreciate that the virus is here to stay for a long time while getting the economy going again.

News24.com | Covid-19: Positive cases rapidly approaching 1 million, with 26 521 deaths registered

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Israel is banning visitors from SA over Covid-19 concerns.

Israel is banning visitors from SA over Covid-19 concerns.

PHOTO: Pedro Pardo/AFP

  • The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 is rapidly approaching 1 million, with 26 521 deaths registered.
  • Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has revealed that 994 911 people have tested positive countrywide.
  • Between 10 to 26 December, 17 934 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospitals around the country.

The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 is rapidly approaching 1 million, with 26 521 deaths registered.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize revealed that 994 911 people tested positive countrywide.

Mkhize said 11 552 new cases had been identified since the last report.

“A cumulative 6 415 824 tests have been conducted with 37 817 tests completed since the last report. Regrettably, today we report 245 more Covid-19 related deaths: Eastern Cape (118), Gauteng (12), KwaZulu-Natal (57), Mpumalanga (three) and Western Cape (55), which brings the total to 26 521 deaths.

“We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the healthcare workers who treated the deceased. Our recoveries currently stand at 839 194,” Mkhize said.

READ | Covid-19 spike: Healthcare unions worried that hospitals won’t cope

Meanwhile, between 10 and 26 December, 17 934 Covid-19 patients were admitted around the country, according to data reported by 623 hospitals to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

About 10 906 patients were discharged during the same time period; 3 155 had died while in hospital during the same time period.

As of 26 December, 10 401 people were admitted – 958 were in ICU and 293 were on a ventilator.

This was the highest number of concurrent admissions reported at any point.

About 131 178 people were admitted to hospital since March and 97 837 were discharged, while 22 828 in-hospital deaths had been recorded.

Comparatively – between 10 November and 10 December, 15 909 people were admitted, 3 147 in-hospital deaths reported, and 13 061 people discharged.

This meant, that in the past two weeks, since 10 December, more new patients were admitted, and more patients died than in the preceding 30-day period.

Additional reporting by Kyle Cowan.

News24.com | Vandals destroy Senzo Meyiwa’s newly unveiled tombstone

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News24 reported this week that a gun linked to the elusive Senzo Meyiwa case has been found.

News24 reported this week that a gun linked to the elusive Senzo Meyiwa case has been found.

Anesh Debiky, Gallo Images

  • Woes are piling up for the family of slain Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain Senzo Meyiwa after his tombstone was vandalised.
  • Family spokesperson Siyabonga Meyiwa said they were shattered and shocked by the incident and would lay charges on Sunday.
  • The tombstone, which was recently unveiled at the Mayville Heroes Acre in Durban, was found destroyed on Saturday.

Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain Senzo Meyiwa’s tombstone has been vandalised, to the anguish of his family.

The tombstone which was recently unveiled at the Mayville Heroes Acre in Durban, was found destroyed on Saturday.

Family spokesperson Siyabonga Meyiwa said they were shattered and shocked by the incident.

Speaking to News24 on Saturday, Meyiwa said a Durban metro municipal employee had informed the family.

“We were called by a municipal employee who told us that Senzo’s tombstone has been vandalised. The man said he didn’t know when it was destroyed, but he only found out this morning while working at the cemetery.

“We are disappointed and don’t know what is happening and why would a person in his right mind vandalise a tombstone. It is an act of crime as far as we can see. We don’t know what motivated the person to damage Senzo’s tombstone,” said Meyiwa.

READ | Itumeleng Khune at Senzo Meyiwa’s tombstone unveiling: ‘They could not separate us’

Meyiwa said Senzo’s mother Ntombifuthi Meyiwa was unhappy, as was the entire family.

“We were also told that it was not only Senzo’s tombstone that was destroyed – there is another next to it that was also damaged,” said Meyiwa.

The family vowed to lay criminal charges on Sunday.

The tombstone was unveiled in November by the South African Football Association.

The footballer was shot and killed in a robbery on 26 October 2014, while visiting his musician girlfriend Kelly Khumalo at her parental home in Vosloorus.

Meyiwa murder accused – Muzikawukhulelwa S’Tembu Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthobisi Prince Mncube, Mthokoziseni Ziphozonke Maphisa and Sifokuhle Nkani Sifiso Ntuli – had so far appeared twice in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court.

They were expected back in court in March 2021.

News24.com | Body of a man found floating in river on Christmas morning

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Die skilderagtige toneel naby Spider Valley waar vyf mans in die Vaalrivier verdrink het. Foto: ER24

Die skilderagtige toneel naby Spider Valley waar vyf mans in die Vaalrivier verdrink het. Foto: ER24

Limpopo police are investigating a case of murder after the body of a man was found floating in the Nwanedzi river on Christmas morning.

In a statement, police said they were called out to the scene by community members in the early hours of Friday.

“The police in Letsitele were allegedly notified by community members about the discovery. The Provincial Search and Rescue Unit was activated. They then started with the search operation and managed to retrieve the body which was found with multiple injuries,” said police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Mamphaswa Seabi. 

Seabi said the man, believed to be in his 30s, was found wearing a blue, white and red t-shirt.

“A black leather jacket and black trousers believed to be belonging to the deceased were found during the search in the river,” he said.

“Police are appealing to anyone with information that can assist to identify the deceased or with information that may lead to the arrest of the suspects to contact Captain Mavis Shiluvani on 082 469 0900 or the crime stop number 0860010111 or the nearest police station,” added  Seabi.

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News24.com | Pressure mounts on already stretched health workers as dark cloud of Covid-19 hangs over SA

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  • Frontline workers are working around the clock amid the country’s second wave.
  • This, as hospital beds are filling up quickly with infections nearing 1 million.
  • An exhausted intensive care nurse in Cape Town said the strain was taking an emotional toll on the nursing staff.

Matron Annamarie Odendaal has cancelled all staff working in the Covid-19 ward from going on holiday at the private Arwyp Medical Centre in Johannesburg as a second wave of the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm South Africa’s health system.

“I called them back because we are in a peak period now, so it’s not easy for the staff because they also want to go back to their family members,” she told Reuters on Christmas Day.

“Sometimes they are tired, but they never say ‘I can’t come to work’. The patient is really always first for them.”

A confluence of school holidays, public laxity and a new, potentially more infectious variant of the virus has left authorities scrambling to counter an earlier-than-expected resurgence of infections that saw new daily cases spike nearly seven-fold from a month ago to top 14 305 on December 24.

Amid the beeps of monitors and ventilators, 60-year-old Odendaal said the situation was getting worse as hospital beds filled up quickly.

Several countries, including Britain which has found the mutant variant in cases linked to South Africa, have banned flights from the country, disrupting holiday travel plans and frustrating tour operators.

The latest data showed the infection tally so far rising to 968 563 on Thursday. If the trajectory continues, South Africa would breach the million mark as early as Sunday, a Reuters tally showed.

South Africa has recorded 25 983 deaths, the highest figure on the continent.

READ | Mkhize lambastes UK travel ban, Covid-19 variant in SA is not more dangerous than UK variant

At Cape Town’s Groote Schuur public hospital, where the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant was performed in 1967, intensive care nurse Verna Collins said she was physically and emotionally drained.

“We thought we were at the end in October, early November, and now this dark cloud is circling again, so emotionally it takes a lot out of the nursing staff,” Collins said outside the hospital on a brief break from the Covid-19 ICU ward, which has reached capacity.

Dressed in theatre scrubs and a red Santa hat, the mother of one said she had been scheduled to work on Christmas Day, but several of her workmates had had to cancel their holiday plans after being called back.

Private hospital group Mediclinic said the number of patients seeking care at its hospitals in Western Cape and rising incidents in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng had already exceeded those in the first peak and the majority of its ICU and high care units were operating at full capacity.

During the first wave earlier this year, her hospital had fewer ICU patients, but now “they do not respond well under treatment so they do end up in ICU 90% of the times,” Collins said.