First Take SA

Eskom is now forecasting that there will be three days of load shedding during the coming winter period, from a previous forecast of thirty days before the lockdown. Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter says Eskom's debt still remains high at 450-billion-rand and the company is still not able to generate enough revenue to meet its debt servicing costs. De Ruyter says loadshedding has had major cost implicati...

Besides fighting the spread of Covid-19, Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is also facing a fight against a looming Day Zero regarding the water supply. The supply dams have an average capacity of 22 percent, and there is no rain forecast for the near future. There is just over a months supply of water left. Weather experts say rainfall alone is not going to change the situation. It is a serious water cris...

International Relations and Co-operation minister, Naledi Pandor, says the department will NOT pay for South Africans, who were repatriated from abroad. The department has received requests from people, who intend going back overseas, and want the department to foot the bill. This, as lockdown restrictions are being eased in some parts of the world. Pandor held a virtual media briefing in Pretoria...

Medical aid scheme members have an option to take a payment holiday of up to three months as people battle financially as a result of the national lockdown. The proposed payment holidays vary with each scheme. Some say non-payment will mean no access to medical aid services for that period of time while others are offering lower packages.

Over 200 Soweto families could spend this winter out in the cold after the City of Johannesburg served them with eviction notices for unlawfully occupying incomplete and vandalised RDP houses. The houses were turned into drug dens and hidding spots for criminals after a contractor abandoned the project allegedly due to contractual dispute with the city. Most of the occupants have refurbished the p...

An investigation into the Covid-19 outbreak which led to the closure of Netcare St Augustine's Hospital in Durban has shown how the virus spread widely within the hospital, including a local nursing home. The investigation found that a single positive patient admitted into the emergency department resulted in the infections of 39 other patients and 80 staff members. Fifteen of those patients have...

The majority of provinces are not ready for the re-opening of schools on the 1st of June. That's the view expressed by teacher unions and school governing bodies. This is in reaction to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga's announcement that Grades 12 and Seven will be returning to class as part of a phased approach. However unions and school governing bodies are not convinced that all school...

The South African Informal Traders Alliance intends on approaching the Western Cape High Court in order to challenge the City of Cape Town's decision to refuse operating permits for certain informal traders during level four of the national lockdown. The Alliance, represented by the Legal Resources Centre alleges that the City has been inconsistent in the issuing of permits by not allowing trading...

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says the delivery of essentials such as sanitisers, masks, water and sanitation is well underway ahead of the reopening of schools on the 1st of June. Addressing a media conference in Pretoria yesterday, Motshekga confirmed a phased re-opening of schools nationwide with Grades seven and 12 resuming classes from the first of next month. There has been concer...

Gauteng Premier David Makhura says he estimates that up to two million people could lose their jobs in the province as the economic impact of Covid-19 is expected to be far worse than initially thought. The premier was answering questions during the Gauteng Legislature's first Virtual House Sitting. The sitting marked the official launch of Gauteng's Digital Legislature.

Schools, in South Africa, are reopening at the beginning of next month. Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga announced this in Pretoria, where she was giving an update on the 2020 academic year amidst coronavirus pandemic. Motshekga says her department has consulted all parties concern about the date set for schools reopening. This despite there being concern in some quarters that schools will...

Some civil society organisations say they are keenly awaiting clarity from the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, on how schools will be prepared to open amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools have been closed for nearly six weeks as government battles to contain the virus. To get schools ready to operate during the lockdown, precautions must be implemented. Civil society organisations lik...

Thomas Thabane has announced he will step down as prime minister of Lesotho following months of pressure after he was named as a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife. He did not say when he would leave office but his party said a new premier would be sworn in. Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro has now been nominated as the incoming Prime Minister.

Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga is expected to address the nation today about preparations for the reopening of schools. This follows a special meeting of the Council of Education Ministers on Monday, which included the Minister together with the nine provincial education MECs. There are suggestions that schools operate at fifty percent capacity with rearranged timetables in order to all...

Scientists and researchers say with the large number of fatalities linked to COVID-19, they are coming under increasing pressure to develop a vaccine. As today marks World AIDS Vaccine Day, doctors say while efforts are still underway to create a vaccine for HIV and AIDS, there is great optimism that a vaccine will be made available for COVID-19 within a few years.

The government has so far approved 15-thousand applications from farmers seeking financial assistance during the lock-down. Most of the applications come from the Eastern Cape followed by the Northern Cape and North West. Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister, Thoko Didiza, announced the outcome of the Covid-19 Agricultural Disaster Fund application process in Pretoria

Business organization, Sakeliga, has launched a court case in a bid to have some of government's Covid-19 lockdown regulations amended. The organisation says the litigation seeks to restore the right for businesses to trade without state-issued permits, irrespective of the lockdown level. It wants the court to order that law-enforcement may not obstruct businesses in this regard.

19,000 prisoners are expected to be released soon, from 240 centres across the country. Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he was releasing 19,000 prisoners to curb the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and ease overcrowding. The parole only applies to low-risk prisoners who would have applied for parole in the last five years.

The Democratic Alliance has vowed to challenge the restrictions of the national lockdown in court in a bid to force government to open up the economy further. The party intends to file papers in the high court, questioning the rationality of three separate lockdown-related issues, namely the night curfew, the ban on e-commerce or online shopping, as well as the restriction on exercise hours. This...

For the first time in 75 years, the Comrades Marathon has had to be cancelled - because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Athletics South Africa, together with the other stakeholders involved in organising the event, took a decision to prioritise the health and safety of everyone that would have been participating in the Ultimate Human Race. The race that was scheduled to be run from Pietermaritzburg t...

The International Labour Organization says COVID-19 has become more than a health pandemic -- it is now a socio-economic pandemic. This as millions of workers here at home and around the world are out of work and struggling to make ends meet

We need to cautiously ahead and the president has to balance the risk of the economy and lives. He is also right on the phasing out of the lockdown as we cannot economically afford to be on lock down forever.

Former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba says he will be launching his new political party in August. Mashaba made the announcement during a Zoom press conference yesterday. He said the party which will contest next year's local government elections in Gauteng province's three strategic metros - Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane. Mashaba said the formation of the party follows engagements of 'The Peo...

President Cyril Ramaphosa says by end of May most of the country may be placed on alert Level Three pending consultations. But he said some parts of the country with the highest infection rates will remain under strict regulations at Level Four. The president made this announcement during his address to the nations at the Union Buildings in Pretoria last night

As Coronavirus deaths in the United States topped 80-thousand, President Donald Trump declared that the nation had prevailed over the novel Coronavirus while predicting a strong economy by late 2020 into 2021. And while the numbers of new cases have flattened, the country added over 18-thousand in the last 24 hours with more than 1000 dead. The Coronavirus Task Force also announced that the federa...