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The Council of Education Ministers (CEM) has pulled the plug on all contact sports with immediate effect, following COVID-19 cluster outbreaks in public schools.

According to the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the decision was taken during a virtual meeting held on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the department said non-contact sports training is permitted to proceed provided all social distancing, hygiene and safety measures are observed and there is zero physical contact between the participants.

Minister Angie Motshekga gazetted directions in consultation with related stakeholders allowing non-contact sports, sports-related activities, school-based art, and cultural activities to resume without spectators when the schools reopened this year.

According to the department, this was subject to adherence to health and safety measures.

“During the last week in term one, school sports activity related COVID-19 outbreaks in Gauteng province were reported and have been gradually increasing in term two,” it said.

According to the department, it is evident that despite following the protocols as guided by the directions on extramural activities and standard operating procedure on prevention and containment of COVID-19 that contact sport was a contributor to the spread of the virus.

“Following the school sports activities related COVID-19 outbreaks in Gauteng and the general rise of cases in communities across the country, the Outbreak Response Team said that the risk was high when engaged within close-contact sports, especially with people who did not live together,” the department said.

SAnews reported last week that academic activities were suspended in two schools in Gauteng after 11 Coronavirus infections were detected in Krugersdorp High School and six at St John’s College.

“In this regard, all sporting activities have been suspended with immediate effect until the cluster outbreak is subsequently over with no further cases reported including the preparatory school sport.”

The department said it will continue to monitor the situation and announced that a government gazette will be issued with notice in the coming days.

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has welcomed the six life terms handed down to a man who murdered his girlfriend and five children.

Zimbabwean national, Nowa Makula aged 32, was sentenced to six life terms in prison by the Elliotdale Magistrates Court for murdering his girlfriend Nomzamo Mhlanti and five children, including a toddler with an axe in their home at Elliotdale in Eastern Cape.

The murders took place in 2020, when the country was commemorating the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children Campaign.

Commission’s spokesperson, Javu Baloyi said CGE has been monitoring the case and they are satisfied with the speed in which the verdict was delivered.

“We are aware that cases of gender-based violence (GBV) take long to be completed in the courts, with many others not getting a conviction. The CGE trusts that this sentence will serve as a benchmark in speedily addressing GBV cases.

“As the institution empowered by the Constitution ‘to promote respect for gender equality and the protection, development and attainment of gender equality,’ this places upon the commission, the burden to ensure that our country observes the right of women and children to be protected against gender-based violence,” Baloyi said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the commission reiterated its appeal to both the public and private sector as well as society to take a stand against perpetrators of gender-based violence.

Meanwhile, the commission will, through its outreach and legal programmes, continue to educate and raise awareness.

“We urge members of the public with information about acts of gender-based violence and abuse to call our toll-free number 0800 007 709 to report such cases or contact the nearest office of the Commission of Gender Equality,” Baloyi said.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) says a total of 1 263 671 students have been assessed as eligible for funding.

NSFAS Board Chairperson Ernest Khosa said the number of eligible students for 2021 funding includes 712 428 first time entry students and 551 243 continuing students, with 323 445 from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and 940 226 universities.

Khosa was addressing the media, following an oversight visit by the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology at the scheme’s head office in Cape Town on Tuesday.

He said that NSFAS Board requested to meet the committee to introduce itself following its appointment on 1 January 2021. The board also wanted to share its strategy to turnaround the organisation and to pledge its commitment of cooperating with the committee, as an oversight structure of Parliament.

Khosa highlighted that despite the operational challenges experienced by the scheme when it was converted into a fully bursary fund from being a provider of student loans in 2018, the scheme continued to grow and has contributed to changing the lives of many South Africans.

“To illustrate, in 2017, there were 254 826 students funded and 40 564 graduates were produced. In 2018 these number grew by 84% leading to 361 449 students funded, and 59 249 graduates were produced,” Khosa said.

While noting these achievements, Khosa said there continues to be challenges that the organisation faces, which ultimately impact on the student experience.

These include, amongst others:

• Student funding shortages;
• Student centred model – delays in funding decisions, appeals processing, disbursements; weak queries resolution mechanism; policy issues such as the N+ 2 rule, absentee parents, postgraduate funding, student accommodation etc.;
• Organisational structure that is not aligned to student centred model, lack of consequence management, lack institutional performance management;
• Negative audit outcomes; and
• Systems that are not fully responsive to the core business of the organisation.

Strategies to address challenges

Khosa said during the meeting with the committee, the board shared its strategies to address amongst other issues, the continuous challenges facing the organisation.

On the student funding, he said the scheme will support the work of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in assessing funding mechanisms.

The board is also developing a fund-raising strategy.

“On student cantered model, we have commissioned an application system and process that will make real time funding eligibility decisions; appeals will be immediate for new students and for continuing students a new appeal portal will be introduced in the second semester which will assist in timely decision making.

“The board, working with the DHET is exploring some funding policy issues. The board has initiated the process of reviewing the organisational structure to align to the student-cantered model. This work is expected to be completed within three months,” Khosa said.

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe says the department’s interventions have helped ensure that Eskom deals with its energy capacity shortages.

The Minister said this when he tabled the department’s budget vote during a mini plenary of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“In 2020, we committed to interventions to deal with electricity supply shortages. We undertook to rapidly increase energy generation capacity outside of Eskom.”

To date, the department has managed to implement a number of interventions, including:

–        The connection of 1 200 megawatts to the grid from projects signed under bid window 4 of the IPP Programme, with the remaining 1 000 megawatts planned to connect by not later than December 2021;

–        The approval of 8 preferred bidders with 3 recommended for appointment subject to them meeting specific value for money conditions. This initiative will deliver a total of 1 995 megawatts of power into the grid within the next 12 to 18 months;

–        Eskom’s procurement of 200 megawatts from Independent Power Producers under the Short-Term Power Purchase Programme;

–        The department, as part of Bid Window 5, issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for 2 600 megawatts from wind and solar energy technologies;

–        The department amending the Electricity Regulations on New Generation Capacity and clarified the requirements for municipalities when undertaking the process to develop or buy power from IPPs;

–        The department amending and gazetting Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act. In this amendment, the department has increased the threshold for registering embedded generation from 1 to 10 megawatts; and

–        NERSA registering 200 projects under one megawatt totalling 94 megawatts and licensed five projects above one  megawatt.

“We have also noted with delight that the mining industry is also taking steps towards self-generation which is in support of our initiatives, to this extent Goldfields will soon commence with construction of its licenced 40 megawatts,” said the Minister.

SA continues to pursue an energy mix

Mantashe said, meanwhile, that South Africa continues to pursue an energy mix as espoused in the country’s energy blueprint, the Integrated Resource Plan.

Even though South Africa and the rest of the world are increasingly under pressure to mitigate against climate change, South Africa’s energy capacity is largely dependent on fossil fuels.

“In an alternative universe, one would immediately eliminate fossil fuel-generated energy such as coal and petroleum. However, this is not our reality, our reality is that we have vast reserves of coal and petroleum resources which we continue to exploit.

“Though this is the case, we are committed to a just transition and have begun investing in clean technologies to ensure that we transition from a high to low carbon economy, while ensuring security of energy supply.”

He said in the coming months, the department will issue additional Requests for Proposals as follows:

–        2 600 megawatts from renewable energy around August 2021

–        513 megawatts from Storage around August 2021

–        1 500 megawatts from Coal around December 2021

–        3 000 megawatts from Gas around December 2021

–        1 600 megawatts from renewable energy around January 2022.

The devastation brought about by COVID-19 and the manner in which South Africa responded to the pandemic has shown how important it is to invest in science to safeguard the nation’s future.

This is according to Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, who tabled the Science and Innovation budget Vote on Tuesday.

“One of the lessons is that investing in science is vital for South Africa’s future and its development.

“Our science and innovation investments made in the past decades led to us building expertise, infrastructure and research capacity needed in our response to when diseases strike.

“This was demonstrated when our national system of innovation (NSI) leveraged our response to the COVID 19 pandemic,” he said.

As the pandemic swept across the world and left death and economic devastation in its wake, South Africa pulled all its resources together to respond to the outbreak through science-driven solutions.

“Collectively, we were able to respond to COVID-19 in a joint effort that would have made Charlotte Maxeke, whose 150th anniversary we celebrate this year, proud.

“These investments and the talent brought into our national system of innovation, led our country to produce premier science that is not only assisting us locally, but also contributing to the global body of knowledge on COVID-19,” Nzimande said.

South Africa’s infrastructure, in response to COVID 19, include the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) which saw local scientists lead investigations into the evolutionary characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and detected a new variant, dubbed 501Y.V2.

There is also the Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research (CPGR) and the South African Biodiversity Institute whose research and development portfolio includes pathogen genomics, and the skills needed in the areas of vaccines, biochemistry, microbiology and genetics, among others.

South Africa has established an indigenous knowledge-based research team that is investigating seven mono-herbal and two multi-herbal medicine formulations with potential relevance to COVID-19.

“We are also collaborating with the North-West University (NWU) to raise public awareness on the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Act.”

Nzimande also said other interventions made include:

– Data modelling, through the CSIR-CMORE situational awareness platform for COVID-19. This provides close to real-time data on the coronavirus outbreak per province, district, local municipality and ward;

– The SA Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN) random sample of household’s research to document the knowledge, behaviour and outcomes of these households in relation to non-pharmaceutical COVID- 19 measures;

– The Human Sciences Research Council surveys to measure the public response to COVID-19 and the effects of lockdown;

– The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) National Ventilator Project; and

– The deployment of hydrogen fuel cell systems in hospitals and medical facilities.

“These infrastructure networks and investments  were instrumental in allowing our government to respond quickly and effectively in managing the coronavirus outbreak.

“They also demonstrated our world class competence in identifying variants and keeping science at the foundation of government decisions.”

Cabinet has approved the department’s strategy to drive a multipronged national vaccine production and development strategy to secure the nation’s long-term pandemic preparedness.

“In this regard, [the department] is working closely with Biovac, in which the State has 47% shareholding, to increase the scope of public participation, and leveraging capital investment by domestic private and international vaccine players, to build South Africa’s vaccine production resilience.

“We hope to build strong partnerships with China, Russia and other BRICS partners, as well as European and North American partners. We are particularly pleased at the commitment of expatriates, most notably, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a former graduate of Wits University, to invest in our nation’s future pandemic security.”

Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, has announced that R27 billion has been pledged by operators and vendors to usher in 5G fibre technologies in South Africa.

The Minister said this when she tabled the department’s budget vote during a mini plenary of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“We believe that partnerships and collaborations are key to taking our sector to greater heights.

“I am therefore pleased to announce that R27 billion is being pledged collectively by the operators and vendors to expand the 4G network, and to deploy the 5G and fibre technologies in South Africa, which has been tested by some operators,” she said.

The announcement comes not long after mobile giant MTN launched 100 5G sites around the country, including in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Gqeberha.

Ndabeni-Abrahams said the network expansion is also extending to rural and underserved areas, which will benefit communities and create jobs.

“As such, I hope that the licensing of the Wholesale Open Access Network (WOAN) and the High-Demand Spectrum will complement these rollout plans.

“In line with government’s vision of connecting 80% of public buildings by 2024, our entities will connect 6687 sites across the country.”

Spectrum to be release by end of March 2022

As per the President’s announcement during the State of the Nation Address earlier this year, the Communications and Digital Technologies Department commenced with the analogue switch-off in March this year.

To date, government has switched off a total of 32 sites in the three priority provinces.

This represents 40% of the planned sites in the three priority provinces of the Free State, Northern Cape and North West.

“The analogue switch-off process is targeting to release the much-needed 700MHz and 800MHZ digital dividend spectrum.

“The spectrum will be released in a phased provincial manner across the country towards our goal of end of March 2022.

“This process, combined with the digital-to-digital migration, will make available a total of 168MHz spectrum in each of the provinces,” the Minister said.

The department is working with the TV broadcasting industry to ensure that the target of March 2022 is realised.

“This will allow spectrum availability for IMT(International Mobile Telecommunications) services on broadband, which ICASA is in the process of licensing.

“The remaining five provinces will have a voucher-system model. We are looking forward to the effective partnership with the industry and support when we begin to roll out the voucher system towards realising a successful migration process.

“We call upon everyone across the country to rally behind us when we pave the way for a better South Africa for ourselves and the future generation,” Ndabeni-Abrahams said.

At least 2 357 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in South Africa in the last 24 hours, while 80 more additional deaths were recorded.

This means as of 18 May 2021, cumulative confirmed cases were reported as 1 617 840 and 55 340 deaths.

According to Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, of the newly recorded fatalities, 32 are from Gauteng and 22 from Free State.

“Free State and Gauteng provinces have been back-capturing deaths over April and May as part of their auditing processes,” Mkhize explained.

In addition, both the Eastern Cape and Limpopo each recorded six deaths, while five are from KwaZulu-Natal.

“We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the healthcare workers who treated the deceased patients,” the Minister added.

Mkhize announced that 479 768 healthcare workers have been immunised under the Sisonke Study, while the total number of those vaccinated in phase two to date is 39 371.

“These vaccinations were with the first dose of [the] Pfizer vaccine,” Mkhize said.

According to the latest data, the recovery rate is sitting at 94.4% after 1 527 968 patients recuperated.

The Minister announced there are now 34 532 active cases, of which 8 155 are found in Gauteng, 6 209 in the Northern Cape, and 5 964 in the Free State.

In addition, 5 096 active cases are in North West, 4 703 in KwaZulu-Natal, 2 630 in the Western Cape, 1 047 in Mpumalanga, 372 in the Eastern Cape and 356 in Limpopo.

Global view

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there have been 163 312 429 confirmed COVID-19 global cases, with 3 386 825 deaths, since the outbreak.

Globally, the number of new cases and deaths continued to decrease in the past week.

According to the WHO, there are over 4.8 million new infections and under 86 000 additional deaths reported, which is a 12% and 5% decrease respectively compared to the previous week.

“Despite a declining trend over the past three weeks, the incidence of cases remains at some of the highest levels since the start of the pandemic.”

The agency said all regions reported a decline in new cases this week apart from the Western Pacific region, where the incidence of new cases was similar to the previous week.

“The European region reported the largest decline in new cases this week, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean. These regions also reported the largest decline in new deaths over the past week.”

Meanwhile, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions reported a similar number of new deaths as the previous week.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported from India (2 387 663 new cases, 13% decrease), Brazil (437 076 new cases, 3% increase), the United States (235 638 new cases, 21% decrease), Argentina (151 332 new cases, 8% increase), and Colombia (115 834 new cases, 6% increase).

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says the national defence force deployed more than 8 000 personnel to the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year.

The Minister said this when she tabled the department’s budget vote during a mini plenary of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

She said the SA National Defence Force has been progressively asked to do more for less for several years now.

The past year, however, was unprecedented. It was, however, a challenge the members who make up this proud national asset, accepted and met with enthusiasm, Mapisa-Nqakula said.

“We were tasked to provide the largest deployment since our democracy in support of the State of National Disaster.

“Not only did we focus on ensuring that citizens adhered to social distancing and the wearing of masks, but we also delivered in many other ways that were unseen.

“The SANDF deployed 8 119 personnel, made up of members of the regular force, reserve force and auxiliary services, in support of other government departments to mitigate and combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The SANDF conducted 12452 road blocks, 7800 vehicle-check-points and 35000 patrols,” she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula said the department also responded urgently where needed, providing drinking water and building bridges in remote areas.

Medical professionals were also deployed to areas that were buckling under the strain of the pandemic.

“Notwithstanding this, the department has suffered its own challenges with COVID-19. We have recorded a number of COVID-19 positive cases and fatalities during this pandemic.”

The Minister said it was important to recognise the enormous contribution of the Cuban medical team.

“They conducted just over 79 298 total procedures, significantly improving our ability to save the lives of our members in uniform.

“We will continue to support the Department of Health in the roll-out of the vaccine program. We have availed our air transport and airport facilities to assist in this endeavour,” she said.

Constrained fiscus

Mapisa-Nqakula said, meanwhile, that the department’s budget vote was delivered under a severely constrained fiscus.

“Nonetheless, we must inform this house of the negative impact our declining allocation has had and will continue to have on the Department of Defence in general – our military capabilities in particular and our ability to meet our operational responsibilities assigned to us as well as our international obligations.

“The reduction of over R15 billion over the MTEF has placed us in a very difficult position. Our capital budget has effectively been reduced to a trickle and the operating budget is under extreme pressure,” she said.

She said that under these conditions, the department was finding it very difficult to improve the serviceability of prime mission equipment.

“Whilst we are fully aware of the fiscal challenges that South Africa has, the reduction to our allocation has a devastating impact, not only on the Defence Force, but also our defence industry and defence related industry and the many SMME’s in the supply chain.”

Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, says it is all systems go as the country embarks on its second day of the COVID-19 mass vaccination rollout plan.

Despite a successful first day on Monday, Mkhize acknowledged that some provinces experienced a few challenges.

Speaking at the Royal Showgrounds mass vaccination centre in Pietermaritzburg where religious leaders joined him, Mkhize said provinces had to contend with load shedding.

According to the Minister, while power cuts did not affect the vaccine’s cold chain, as there were contingency plans in place, it created challenges with the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS).

“Load shedding disabled the system and made the reception a bit slow and had to use a lot of manual records for that. Nevertheless, it doesn’t derail our Electronic Vaccination Data System,” he said on Tuesday.

According to Mkhize, the EVDS recorded 11 000 people who received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. However, the Minister said the figure is yet to be reconciled with vaccinees that were recorded manually.

In addition, some areas like Bloemfontein in the Free State, had to shut down a centre after disruptions sparked by protests.

“The other issues that we’ve noticed was that there was a slow start because people are still getting used to this and some were indicating that the mixing got them in a difficulty. Therefore, they lost the last dose. Every vile has six people that must be vaccinated,” he explained.

However, he believes that the wastage will be less as the vaccinators gets the hang of things.

Mkhize said more vaccination centres were operational on Tuesday and that government is targeting to open over 3 300 sites by end of September.

More vaccines

While the number of vaccines that are coming will be less for the first two months, Mkhize said these will start to scale up from July.

Between now and June, the Minister believes that South Africa would have received about six million lifesaving jabs.

“We’re trying to get more than that but because of some of the delays; we’re actually getting our deliveries rescheduled for later on in the year.”

The Minister said government is targeting to vaccinate 250 000 people per day to reach 16 million people during the second phase, which is currently focusing on those aged 60 and above.

“We’d like our people to be very patient because we might want to delay the second dose by up to three months. If that happens, don’t feel aggrieved. We want to make sure that we reach as many people as possible and build up immunity.”

Mkhize said government is looking into extending the interval between initial and booster doses of the shot to three months.

“The evidence coming from the UK has shown there’s better immunity developing if someone gets a second booster dose after three months than if you do that after three weeks. So, there’s no challenge as such if we were to delay.”

In addition, he said they are pushing to vaccinate all the healthcare workers by the end of the week.

Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says the department will restructure the Tourism Transformation Fund to make it more responsive and accessible to entrepreneurs.

The Minister said this when she tabled the department’s Budget Vote in Parliament on Tuesday.

“Our government has a responsibility to transform the economy and to create an inclusive non-racial society in which South Africans share equitably in the wealth of our country. In this effort we shall not be deterred.

“While some success has been recorded in the implementation of the Tourism Transformation Fund, which is administered in partnership with the National Empowerment Fund, it will be restructured in response to the feedback we received from entrepreneurs on their experiences with the fund in its current form.

“We are currently redesigning the fund to be more efficient and more accessible to entrepreneurs and we will be making an announcement in the coming weeks.”

Kubayi-Ngubane said the restructuring of the fund comes as part of the department’s efforts to respond to the growing sense of unease among the previously disadvantaged emanating from the slow progress of transformation of the economy most visibly in the tourism sector.

She said the department has adopted an approach premised on the assumption that transformation of the economy is a collective responsibility that has been embraced by all South Africans.

“The Fund is capitalised to the tune of R 77 million from its initial amount of R120 million after about R43 million [worth] of successful applications,” she said.

Kubayi-Ngubane said, meanwhile, that in January this year the department launched the Tourism Equity Fund.

This is a dedicated fund designed to provide a combination of debt finance and grant funding to facilitate equity acquisition as well as new project development in the tourism sector by enterprises with 51% black ownership.

The combined value of the Tourism Equity Fund at just over R1.2 billion inclusive of debt from Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) and its commercial banking partner.

However, the processing of applications has been interdicted by the court following an application against the fund by AfriForum and Solidarity.

“Once again, the effort to transform the economy to make it more inclusive is being frustrated. As I have already said, we shall not be deterred in this effort. Our lawyers are studying the reasons for the interdict and a response to this shall be provided.”