Boots on the ground

When she hears of a farmer and their family brutally attacked, tortured or murdered, emerging Bloemfontein farmer Mimmie Jakobs has flashbacks to the moment three men burst into her home. Stabbed multiple times, beaten to a pulp, her jaw broken, face fractured and left for dead, Jakobs, who farms lucerne and pecan nuts, stumbled for nearly 14km through neighbours fields through the dark before she...

A new directive from the health department that anyone who dies of natural causes outside a hospital be tested for Covid-19 before a death certificate is issued has thrown the funeral industry into confusion. The instruction, issued on Wednesday by health director-general Sandile Buthelezi, has sparked anger and confusion among undertakers and health professionals who say it will delay burials and...

According to the official figures released on Sunday night, 10,408 people have died in SA as a result of the coronavirus.   While more than over 10 000 deaths is already a significant number, funeral parlours have reported a spike in the funerals they are being required to cater for. They report numbers which are much higher than the official reported death toll. So what are we dealing with here?...

It’s month four of SA’s national lockdown, and while most of us have begun to settle into the new normal, the danger Covid-19 presents for our country has not yet dissipated. SA is now one of only five countries to have recorded over a half million confirmed Covid-19 cases. While these are daunting numbers for all of us, for South Africans desperately waiting for a live-saving organ transplant, th...

President Cyril Ramaphosa banned the sale and distribution of alcohol for the second time on July 12, citing “clear evidence”, that the use of alcohol places undue pressure on medical facilities. However, the president's evidence is still hotly contested in the Ministerial Advisory Committee. This episode of Boots on the ground: behind SA's national lockdown looks into the scientific validity of t...

It's week 14 of South Africa’s national lockdown, and it is crystal clear that preparations of the most morbid sort are underway. From the development of field hospitals to the creations of added burial capacity, there is a mad dash underway in SA's health sector. The questions the country face is: have we done enough, and are we ready for what comes next? In today’s episode, we consider those ver...

Saturday the 4th of July, marks SA’s 100th day in lockdown. The country has progressed from a very daunting lockdown level 5 to what people are now calling lockdown level 3 lite. With the easing of lockdown restrictions many South Africans seem to have lost their fear of Covid-19, with some people holding that the virus is just a flu that ought not to be feared. This is strange, because Covid-19 h...

In this episode of Boots on the ground: behind SA’s national lockdown, we speak to the witnesses and victims who were present when Collins Khosa died. 40-year-old Collins Khosa died on April 10 after he was allegedly assaulted by soldiers. His life partner, Nomsa Montsa, alleged in an affidavit that Khosa had been sitting with his brother-in-law inside the yard of their Alexandra home when soldier...

In this episode of Boots on the ground: behind SA's national lockdown, we chat to restaurateurs turned cigarette smugglers. In light of the North Gauteng High Court ruling that the lockdown regulations are "unconstitutional and invalid", we ask if certain lockdown regulations are criminalising our society. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

With lockdown level 3 looming, SA parents need to make some hard decisions around how best to begin exposing their children to Covid-19. In this episode of Boots on the ground, we consider some of the difficult choices parents have had to face since lockdown began and what decisions still need to be made as schools prepare to open their doors on Monday. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

In this episode of 'Boots on the ground': behind SA's national lockdown we look at the toll lockdown is having on the South African economy and consider Prof Glenda Gray's accusation that government’s risk-adjusted Covid-19 strategy is “unscientific”. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

SA has been in lockdown for over 50 days and one thing is clear: people want their basic freedoms back. So while the announcement of lockdown level 4 was initially met by cheers, it has also unintentionally made the national lockdown a lot harder to govern. Fluctuating laws and regulations have seen a pushback from the country’s citizens. In today’s episode we follow SANDF soldiers into Alex, as t...

In this short podcast series, we follow Sunday Times reporter Alex Patrick and senior reporter Graeme Hosken, as they track, record and reflect on the real events and people that make up SA’s biggest Covid-19 news stories. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

In today’s episode of 'Boots on the ground: behind SA’s lockdown', we place under the  microscope the plight of our neighbours both locally and across our borders, and consider what happens to our humanity when we ignore the suffering of those around us. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

It’s the end of week 3 of SA’s national lockdown and Friday would have marked our first day out of lockdown, had President Cyril Ramaphosa not announced a two-week extension. In a way it is the end of the beginning, but by no means the beginning of the end. The truth is, as South Africans confront the prospect of week 4 of lockdown, the balance between lives and livelihoods has come into stark foc...

On today's episode of Boots on the Ground: behind SA’s national lockdown: Graeme goes on a ride-along with SA's late night lockdown enforcers, Alex has a Covid scare and SA’s lockdown gets extended by another 2 weeks! This immersive podcast follows Sunday Times reporter Alex Patrick and senior reporter Graeme Hosken, as they document the second week of SA's lockdown in remarkable detail. Take a tr...

For South Africans in densely populated urban areas, it is next to impossible to socially isolate and this strain was felt as SA entered its first official week of lockdown. This immersive podcast follows Sunday Times reporter Alex Patrick and senior reporter Graeme Hosken, as they document the first week of SA's lockdown in remarkable detail. Take a trip outside your front door without having to...