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Exactly 25 years ago, Bafana Bafana were crowned African champions after beating Tunisia 2-0 in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
Two players have been withdrawn from South Africa's squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka after testing positive for Covid-19.
THE adage that misfortunes never come single has proven correct for the people of Chipinge and Chimanimani who now suffer the double blow of fighting COVID-19, while at the same time they are also licking the wounds caused by Cyclone Idai which severely damaged their infrastructure. BY MAURICE DUNDU Sadly, most of the victims of this double tragedy are married women whose husbands work in South Africa, while they are left to bear the painful burden of taking care of their children alone. To add to their problems, in most cases their husbands have second wives or concubines in the neighbouring countries where they work. Chipinge has always experienced problems of young men, especially those that fail to make it educationally, and who then opt to travel to South Africa to look for work while leaving behind their families in Zimbabwe. Most of the families that are left behind suffer in times of natural disasters such as Cyclone Idai and during pandemics such as COVID-19. Their situation is further worsened by the fact that most Ndau men from Chipinge take long to return from South Africa as they want to first accumulate money and goods before coming back. Coming home empty handed is considered an insult to the women and children who would have endured the pain of missing them for a long time, only for them to return empty handed. The COVID-19 lockdown bailout package for workers in foreign countries also does not consider the plight of the poor women and children in Zimbabwe. The workers also have been struggling to survive during the lockdown period in that country, which means that after the relaxation of the lockdown period they have to work first to get more money before dreaming of coming back. A Ndau man who works in South Africa known as Baba aKali said coming back home after the relaxation of the COVID-19 lockdown will take long as he needs to work to make up for the time and money lost during lockdown. “Coming home will take long for many workers here as they need to recover the money lost during the lockdown period. Life here is not that rosy. It is difficult with this COVID-19,” aKali said. Audience Zondwayo from Chipinge West said the COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened the situation in Chipinge where people are still struggling to recover from the effects of Cyclone Idai. Zondwayo said some women whose husbands work in South Africa have started small businesses like vending, and market gardening as they tried to recover from the effects of Cyclone Idai. “After Cyclone Idai people resorted to vending to ameliorate hunger, but during the COVID-19 lockdown period their wares like vegetables got rotten as they could not go out to sell them,” Zondwayo said. He said this deprived the women from income to support their children given that their husbands were either also struggling or supporting other women in foreign lands. The women whose husbands work in foreign lands end up suffering materially, emotionally and they are also sex starved. Unfortunately for them, while their husbands can have concubines or sec
(ThyBlackMan.com) Walter Williams loved teaching. Unlike too many other teachers today, he made it a point never to impose his opinions on his students. Those who read his syndicated newspaper columns know that he expressed his opinions boldly and unequivocally there. But not in the classroom. Walter once said he hoped that, on the day […]
[Cameroon Tribune] The Abakwa boys played a 0-0 tie with Kaiser Chiefs of South Africa on Saturday December 5, 2020 in the second leg preliminary in Johannesburg.
In the latest news on Wednesday 2 December, the public wage spat has caused the Democratic Alliance to accuse President Cyril Ramaphosa of treason.
The DA has set out plans to force the government to release its plans to source a Covid-19 vaccine for the country.
(Partner Content) Once you have relocated to the UK with your family, you will need to decide where to send your children to school, which can appear daunting. To help make the process easier, we have compared the education system in South Africa to the school system in the UK so you can make the best decision for your children.
The DA says the National Command Council is considering two lockdown restrictions that could have a disastrous impact on the economy.
In the early weeks and months of the coronavirus pandemic, medics and health professionals working in hospitals around the world noticed that Covid-19 was hitting men harder than women. Now, a global analysis of over 3 million Covid-19 cases from January to June has found that male patients with the disease have 'almost three times the odds' of requiring admission to intensive care than female patients. What's more, men were almost 1.4 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than women - although both sexes have an equivalent risk of infection. The researchers analyzed data from 90 reports involving 46 countries and 44 US states. This data showed that, among the cases in the study, about 1.57 million were women and about 1.53 million were men. Yet when it came to data on over 12,000 admissions to hospital intensive care units, about 8,000 of those were men and 4,000 were women, the researchers found. And among the over 200,000 Covid-19 deaths included in the study, about 120,000 were men and 91,000 were women. The study, which published in the journal Nature Communications on Wednesday, didn't examine the reasons for the disparity. But the researchers - from the University College London and the University of Cape Town in South Africa - suggested the explanation is more likely due to biological differences than behavioral or socioeconomic ones. The many parts of the immune system that work together to defend the body against viruses do not operate exactly the same way in men and women, and the study said that more research is needed to determine which specific biological factors may be driving these differences. 'Men and women have differences in almost all arms of the immune system. These range from the early immune responses to viral infection, to T cell responses, B cell responses and immune memory,' said study author Dr. Kate Webb, a consultant pediatric rheumatologist at the University of Cape Town and The Francis Crick Institute in London. 'There are many potential reasons for these differences in immunity: hormones have immunological effects and women have two X chromosomes compared to one in men. X chromosomes are packed full of genes which code for immunity.' -CNN
Today is the 345th day of 2020. There are 21 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT2010: Veteran journalist and university lecturer John Maxwell passes on.�OTHER EVENTS1520: Martin Luther publicly burns the papal edict demanding that he recant or face excommunication from the Roman Catholic church.
The EFF in Gauteng has condemned the apparent leaking of Mathematics Paper 2 in the province.
So you couldn't catch the latest episode of Skeem Saam? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Be warned of spoilers!
CSA interim board chairperson Zak Yacoob said he didn't want to blame England for the cancellation of their recent ODI tour of South Africa.
Showmax is offering viewers a front-row seat into the life of one of South Africa’s most successful exports, Lebo M.
THE completion of the multi-million-dollar Kazungula River Bridge is certainly sweet music in the ears of Botswana and Zambia, but for Zimbabwe, it presents a headache over loss of transit fees. by ALFONCE MBIZWO/MTHANDAZO NYONI The new Kazungula River Bridge, which is expected to be functional by year-end, links Zambia’s Kazungula town with Botswana. It also offers an alternative route to road transporters from South Africa to Zambia and other northern countries in the region. Currently, the Beitbridge-Chirundu road is a key component of the Trans-African Highway Network Zimbabwean link between South Africa and Zambia. It is also part of the North–South Corridor Project and the Cape to Cairo Road, and a gateway to the common market for Eastern and Southern Africa. But Zimbabwe has neglected the roads that make up the corridor. The Beitbridge-Harare Highway was built in the 1960s and has far outlived its 20-year lifespan. After haggling over tenders since 2003, government finally started work on the dualisation of the road last year, with different companies working on parts of the project to expedite completion, but this may have come too late to save the situation. Zimbabwe still needs to address the bottlenecks at its Beitbridge Border Post which often sees haulage trucks stuck for days on end waiting for service. The Beitbridge port is the busiest transit border for cargo from South African ports with destinations in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and often as far as Tanzania. There are relatively few studies on the financial benefit the corridor brings to Zimbabwe but a situation analysis carried out in 2009 showed that the waiting time at the border was about 33 hours for south-bound traffic while for north bound traffic waiting time was about 45 hours. It was estimated that the cost associated with this waiting time was about US$29.3 million for south bound and US$35 million for north bound traffic per year. In contrast, the South Africa/Botswana Groblersbrug border post is quicker to process documentation at between eight-10 hours. Botswana roads are better maintained than Zimbabwe’s and fuel costs are lower. Distance-wise, Johannesburg to Lusaka, Zambia through Beitbridge is 1 525km while via Kazungula, the journey is 1 730km. But with Zimbabwe’s poor road network, congestion and long winding queues at the country’s points of entry, especially Beitbridge, truckers will likely avoid the frustrations of using the Zimbabwe route, losing the southern African nation billions of dollars in potential revenue to the new crossing point. According to a recent study, delays at Beitbridge are costing transport operators up to US$350 per day per truck, negating the cost benefit of its connectivity to multiple seaports in Durban and Mozambique. To complement the Kazungula Bridge, Botswana in 2016 said it was building several truck stop facilities for cross-border operators, making the route more attractive to haulage trucks. “It should be a wake-up call to Zimbabweans that the whole region cann
[spotlight] In 2019, only 53% of the estimated 1.8 million children living with HIV world-wide were diagnosed and on treatment. That means that over 800 000 children living with HIV are not receiving the treatment they need to stay healthy.
Judith February On December 5 we marked the seventh anniversary of the late former South African President Nelson Madiba Mandela’s passing, while 10 December marked the 24th anniversary of the final Constitution which was signed into law by him at Sharpeville in 1996. Somehow it seems fitting that these important events are five days apart on the calendar even if separated by 17 years. The adoption of our final Constitution was a significant milestone, though 24 years are not the same as 25 and so 2021 will doubtless be the year where we look at the making of our Constitution and the road we have travelled, more carefully. While the Constitution remains a lodestar to those who believe in the constitutional democracy we wrought, it has now become fashionable to blame Madiba and the Constitution itself for lack of transformation within our society. It is a limited argument that ignores the politics of the day and the corruption and mismanagement that lies at the heart of our inability to ensure basic rights are protected. A more expansive notion of constitutionalism was proffered by former Chief Justice Pius Langa when he said: “Transformation is a permanent ideal, a way of looking at the world that creates a space is in which dialogue and contestation are truly possible, in which new ways of being are constantly explored and created, accepted and rejected and in which change is unpredictable but the idea of change is constant. This is perhaps the ultimate vision of a transformative constitution . . . It envisions a society that will always be open to change and contestation, a society that will always be defined by transformation.” Most democracies find such mature contestation tricky to navigate. South Africa is no different. Given the challenges South Africa faces, it is easy (and perhaps inevitable) to slip into reductionist thinking on the Constitution itself, that it is an imported liberal concept and not worth the paper it is written on. But in a world of cheap populism and easy answers, now more than ever we need to dispel what is reductionist and ahistorical. Former Constitutional Court judge Justice Albie Sachs is a charming storyteller. He talks of his debates on constitutionalism with his old friend, the late Kader Asmal, with humour and relish. Sachs never misses an opportunity to explain the African National Congress (ANC)’s debates on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. In these confusing times of noisy debate about constitutionalism, his recollections are worth pondering. Sachs describes the pre-1990s rights debates within the ANC as difficult and often fierce. Is the fight for human rights a “luxury” when one is fighting for national liberation from a system as brutal as apartheid? Sachs often recalls how some within the ANC believed that a Bill of Rights would only seek to protect entrenched (white) privilege while not providing the majority of citizens with true protection. During the 2016 #feesmustfall activism, the Constitution itself came under scrutiny. For many younger South Africans, the o
New High Commissioner of India to Jamaica R Masakui (centre) presented his credentials to Governor General Sir Patrick Allen on Friday, December 4, at King's House, St Andrew.
The South African chatted to SA rapper and producer PHFAT about the 'lockdown music industry' and bringing the party to 'A New Day Out'
THE African Diaspora Global Network (ADGN) and Migrants Workers’ Association-SA (MWA-SA), organisations led by Zimbabweans in South Africa have expressed concern over the renewed attacks and burning of trucks driven by foreign nationals in that country. BY SILAS NKALA They called upon the government of that country to take deterrent measures to stop the criminal activities. Yesterday, ADGN president Vusumuzi Sibanda said the renewed attacks and burning of trucks by seemingly unknown individuals had become disconcerting in SA. “We are aware that ministerial task teams were set up to deal with grievances from various groups, but this did not resolve the problem,” he said. “Many of the drivers have been attacked, not because they have no proper permits. The attackers do not request for permits before attacking. They are attacked for merely being migrants or if the company is perceived to be employing migrant drivers irrespective of their status in the country.” He added: “It would help to hear that the government has taken a position that any such attackers will be arrested and organisations known to be behind such acts will be held accountable. “We plead with President of SA (Cyril Ramaphosa) as the chair of the African Union to show that the values of ubuntu, ‘I am because you are’ are embedded in the African humanness and make us the African people to all abide by them.” On the same note MWA-SA chairperson, Butholezwe Nyathi, called on all migrants to organise themselves to mitigate the effects of these disturbances. “People should not wait until there is a situation like these attacks. They should be proactive in coming up with lasting solutions that will create harmony among locals and migrants through projects like migrant skills transfer to locals,” he said.
