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South Africa on Sunday recorded 2 585 new COVID-19 cases after 27 543 tests were conducted, representing a 9.4% positivity rate.

Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, announced that 27 patients succumbed to COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 55 210 to date.

Of the latest fatalities, 10 are from Gauteng, six from Mpumalanga, five from KwaZulu-Natal, three from the Western Cape, two from the Free State and one from the Northern Cape.

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

The recovery rate stands at 94.4%, after 1 524 352 patients beat COVID-19.

The country has 34 166 active cases. With 7 671 people who are currently infected in Gauteng, the province is now the hardest hit in terms of active cases.

The province is followed by 5 972 active cases in the Northern Cape, 5 793 in KwaZulu-Natal, 5 627 in the Free State, 4 766 in the North West, 2 477 in the Western Cape, 1 100 in Mpumalanga, 395 Limpopo and 365 in the Eastern Cape.

The data is based on the 11 115 048 tests conducted to date.

Globally, there have been 162 177 376 confirmed global cases of COVID-19, including 3 364 178 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Meanwhile, WHO said 1 264 164 553 vaccine doses have been administered to date.

The Department of Home Affairs has secured a court interdict, which prohibits members of the Unification Task Team (UTT) from intimidating staff and people visiting Home Affairs offices.

The interdict also prohibits UTT from damaging any Home Affairs property. It was served on Tuesday.

“The interdict forms part of the contingency plan of the department to ensure that people who need Home Affairs services are not inconvenienced,” the department said on Wednesday.

The department said it has regular lines of communication with the UTT and the lines of communication remain open.

“They have used these lines of communication to raise issues of concern to them. Some of the issues they have raised with us fall under the mandate of the Department of Health and local municipalities.

“In the regular engagements with the UTT, the department has indicated the need to consult the Department of Health and the local municipalities through the SA Local Government Association (SALGA). The consultations between the Departments of Home Affairs and Health and SALGA on the issues raised by UTT are taking place,” the department said.

Two outcomes of these engagements, was an agreement to grant provisional designation for funeral parlours or undertakers to temporarily conduct business relating to Home Affairs registration of deaths.

As part of this agreement, applications to be designated funeral undertakers are required to comply with the following:

• Proof of storage lease agreement as certification of the business relationship for processing or keeping and cold storage of the deceased with a facility issued with the Certificate of Competence
• A Certificate of Competence of the person (lessor) leasing the premises or part thereof, taking into account that the lessor may only lease premises or part of the premises with a valid Certificate of Competence.

“The second decision was to grant this permission to those not yet designated to apply for provisional designation for a period of 12 months while the three State entities find a lasting solution to the issues raised by the UTT, especially those relating to regulations,” the department said.

South Africa is edging closer to a 1.6 million COVID-19 caseload, after 1 548 patients were confirmed to have contracted the virus on Tuesday.

According to Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases identified since the outbreak now stands at 1 599 272 in South Africa.

The Minister also announced 71 additional deaths related to Coronavirus, bringing the tally to 54 896.

Of the latest fatalities, 23 are from the Free State, while both Gauteng and the Northern Cape recorded 16 each.

In addition, eight deaths occurred in the Western Cape, five in KwaZulu-Natal and three from the Eastern Cape.

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

Meanwhile, the recovery rate is still holding steady at 95% after 1 519 258 patients recuperated so far, while the country has 25 118 active cases.

The information is based on the 10 931 906 tests of which 26 075 were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there are 158 651 638 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 3 299 764 deaths, with 1 206 243 409 administered vaccine doses.

Global view

According to the WHO, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths globally decreased slightly this week, with over 5.5 million infections and over 90 000 deaths.

“Case and death incidence, however, remains at the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic,” the organisation added.

According to the WHO’s weekly epidemiological update, the additional weekly cases decreased in the regions of Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, while the South-East Asia region continued an upward trajectory for nine weeks and reported a further 6% increase last week.

Death incidence peaked in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions, while India continues to account for 95% of cases and 93% of deaths in the South-East Asia region, as well as 50% of global cases and 30% of global deaths.

The organisation said the “worrying” trends have been observed in neighbouring countries, which have been showing a sustained upward trend in cases and deaths over several weeks.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported from India (2 738 957 new cases, 5% increase), Brazil (423 438 new cases, similar to the previous week), the United States (334 784 new cases, 3% decrease), Turkey (166 733 new cases, 35% decrease), and Argentina (140 771 new cases, 8% decrease).

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has sent condolences to the families of seven people who passed away in a gruesome crash on the N3, in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.

According to road traffic law enforcement in KwaZulu-Natal, the accident occurred seven kilometres towards the Mooi River Plaza.

Further information revealed the accident involved a rigid truck, bus and a tanker that collided and caught fire.

“On behalf of the South African government, I send my sincere condolences to the families of the loved ones who passed away during this tragic accident. We saw the horrific scenes from the N3 where people were burnt beyond recognition with many sustaining injuries.

“The loss of lives on our roads is a scourge we are fighting. Road traffic law enforcement authorities are investigating the matter and will provide the families the much needed information for closure,” Mbalula said.

The Minister said that investigations of culpable homicide and the exact cause of the accident, are currently underway.

The Eastern Cape Water and Sanitation, in collaboration with Education Department and various municipalities, will this month embark on a number of activities to raise awareness on the importance of sanitation, health and hygiene, and water conservation.

This forms part of sanitation activities undertaken this month under the theme “Sanitation for Health and Dignity”, to increase awareness about the importance of sanitation, health and hygiene.

The provincial department said that activities will focus on raising awareness on government’s efforts in the provision of adequate water and sanitation facilities.

“They will include school education awareness, public education programmes and road shows aimed at encouraging people to take action and raise the profile of sanitation, as well as health and hygiene,” the department said in a statement.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), 829 000 people die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation, and hand hygiene.

“Safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene are crucial to human health and well-being. Safe water, sanitation and hygiene is not only a prerequisite to health, but contributes to livelihoods, school attendance and dignity and helps to create resilient communities living in healthy environments,” WHO said.

The awareness campaign will run throughout the month, and activities will be in line with all COVID-19 regulations.

Two former South African Revenue Service (SARS) auditors, have been arrested for alleged tax evasion worth approximately R321 million.

The Johannesburg Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team made the arrests on Tuesday.

The auditors – Corah Madlepollo Kooko (39) and Noluthando Sipokazi Mbanga (45) – and their runner, Mndolozi Mncube (44) have been charged for tax fraud in contravention of the Value Added Tax Act, as well as Customs and Excise Act.

The latter had an actual loss of over R277 million. Of this, R44 million had already been recovered through investigation in conjunction with SARS.

In a statement, the Hawks said between 2013 and 2016, SARS investigators identified extensive VAT fraud with small and medium enterprises sectors registered as VAT merchants.

“The fraud related to the claiming of undue VAT refunds from SARS and money laundering pertaining to these companies and their directors working in cahoots,” said Captain Lloyd Ramovha.

He said the Hawks investigation uncovered that the syndicate involves more than twenty individuals and various companies.

“Taxpayers, runners, SARS current and former employees, as well as bank employees were also caught up in the web of deceit.  Most of the fraudulent invoices were uploaded from the SARS branch in Randfontein where some of the implicated suspects were based,” he said.

The Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crime Court granted the trio R10 000 bail each and the case was postponed to 13 July 2021 pending further investigation.

The case backlog experienced at the South African Police Service (SAPS) Forensic Science Laboratories has begun to clear, Police Minister Bheki Cele has told Parliament.

He was addressing Members of Parliament during a debate on Tuesday.

Over the past two years, the effective provision of service ground to almost a halt, due to budget constraints and ineffective and weak contract management.

Challenges in the service began with funding suspension of the criminal justice system by the National Treasury due to changes to its strategic objectives.

“This move meant there was an increased reliance on the operational budget in order to continue with the business of policing,” he said.

During 2019/2020 financial year, the allocated operational budget was depleted by July 2019.

“A request was then made for additional funding which was allocated in November 2019. No procurement could be initiated in December 2019. Added to that, the SAPS stopped all procurement from a supplier providing many forensic products to the SAPS,” said Cele.

During this period, several contracts were coming to an end due to the non-availability of funding while new contracts were not activated.

“To avoid fiscal dumping, no procurement could be facilitated at that stage. As a result, the core function of the laboratories was at a standstill until August of the 2020/2021 financial year,” he said.

From June 2020, no electronic track and trace functionality was done due to the discontinuation of the system by the service provider. As a result, tracking and tracing of exhibits could only be done manually.

This manual work saw a rapid build-up of cases, as forensic analysts were only processing a fraction of what could be processed with the discontinued system. As a result, testing of specimens for DNA also reached a bottleneck. This was a direct result of the shortage of Quantification Kits (DNA consumables).

These kits are essential for DNA testing at the SAPS laboratories. The reality is that this particular shortage was due to poor contract management in the SAPS.

Currently, the backlog stands at 208 291 cases. Of these, over 60 000 are at the laboratories but have not been analysed. Just over 36 626 are DNA related while 82 000 are related to cases of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

Of the four SAPS Forensic Science Laboratories, the Gauteng province experienced the largest degree of DNA backlogs at 115%. The Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape followed with 113%, 81% and 44%, respectively.

“The huge backlog is unacceptable,” conceded Cele. “We totally agree.”

Turnaround plan

Despite this, SAPS management has in recent months been hard at work to implement an urgent turnaround plan for the sake of all victims of crime, especially women and children.

“About 42% of dockets for crimes committed against women and children that had been outstanding for over a year, have been finalised,” he said.

It was for this reason, he said, all cases relating to GBV and Femicide were being prioritised based on guidance from the National Prosecuting Authority.

Over 77 480 such court-ready but have outstanding results are being processed.

Already, over 2 500 such cases have so far been finalised.

“Our goal is to bring normality back to the operations of the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratories within the next 18 months,” he said.

In an effort to expand the country’s forensic capacity, the SAPS was already constructing a DNA analysis capability building at the Eastern Cape Forensic Laboratory.

“The Eastern Cape and the KZN laboratories are currently providing limited services. We are certain that once fully operational, they will further assist towards the achievement of the 18 month stabilization target,” said the Minister.

Added to this, an inability to track and trace exhibits in its laboratories, as a result of the withdrawal of a service provider, was another dilemma facing the SAPS.

However, in collaboration with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the SAPS have developed the now operational Forensic Exhibit Management (FEM) System. Replacing its predecessor, the system went live on 6 April and was rolled out to the four SAPS Forensic laboratories.

“[Before this forensic analysts] processed around a thousand specimens a week. Within a month, a total of 63 576 cases were registered, tracked and traced electronically. Over 33 750 of the total of cases were registered in the biology environment,” said the Minister.

Contract management

Cele said SAPS was currently undertaking a contract management system in the laboratories.

He assured the National Assembly that this was receiving urgent attention to address the backlog.

Additional R250 million allocated towards responding to the challenges in laboratories

He said COVID-19 protocols were compromising the availability of operational capacity in laboratories. SAPS management was increasing human capacity building to meet demand.

In this regard, 128 internal scientists have been and are now working in the operational environment of the laboratories.

A further 28 appointments are set to be finalised to provide support services.

“We are also recruiting outside the organisation for forensic analysts, who will work at a Warrant Officer level. When this recruitment process is finalised, there will be an additional 150 analysts to add to the existing staff complement by July 2021,” said Cele.

He said the SAPS’ goal was to have 40% of human resources dedicated to addressing backlogs and 60% of staff complement handle incoming cases.

The Minister said it was important that the critical service was never again compromised.

Checks and balances in place

It was for this reason that the SAPS was putting checks and balances in place to avoid a repeat.

“We are also developing an early warning system for effective response to system anomalies and to address teething problems experienced in the FEM system,” said Cele.

There will also be weekly technical and mechanical progress evaluations by SAPS and the DNA board.

Lastly, there will now be collaborative work between the SAPS, Department of Justice and the NPA.

Officials in the departments will meet monthly to fast track long outstanding court cases requiring DNA analysis reports.

He said while the SAPS was not out of the woods, progress was being made.

“We are fully aware of the significant and severe impact that the backlog and delays have caused. However, we remain confident in our intervention measures that are aimed at regaining public confidence and equally restoring organisational reputation and image,” he said.

The KwaZulu-Natal government has reaffirmed its commitment to eliminate poverty while also improving people’s livelihoods.

Agriculture and Environmental Affairs MEC, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi made the pledge during the launch of the Community Nutrition and Development Centre (CNDC) held at Ward 14 in Uphongolo Local Municipality, north of KwaZulu-Natal.

Sithole-Moloi, who was standing in for Social Development MEC, Nonhlanhla Khoza noted that Ward 14 was identified as one of the most deprived wards in Uphongolo Municipality, as determined by Statistics South Africa.

It is amongst 51 wards in the province identified for the implementation of the CNDC programme.

CNDCs are centres where people that are severely affected by poverty are identified by community leaders and community representatives, through Operation Sukuma Sakhe and brought to the centre to access nutritious meals.

The beneficiaries are expected to be in the CNDCs for a maximum of 12 months within which developmental programmes are offered and are later linked to economic opportunities in agriculture, employment programmes, enterprise development programmes and skills development.

The beneficiaries have access to balanced meals from Monday to Friday.

She urged beneficiaries of the CNDC to protect state assets that government has allocated to them, including cooking equipment.

“This initiative has created job opportunities for young people, who will cook for over 200 beneficiaries across the ward,” she said.

Sithole-Moloi was accompanied by Human Settlements and Public Works MEC Jomo Sibiya, Uphongolo Local Municipality Mayor Sibusiso Mhlongo, and Inkosi Zeblon Gumbi.

Sibiya commended government for involving community structures in the development of the programme.

“We have seen for ourselves that this ward is blanketed by poverty and interventions like this CNDC will go a long way in changing the lives of the people in this ward. Government also wants to ensure that when the beneficiaries exit, [they] have proper skills to sustain themselves moving forward,” Sibiya said.

Inkosi Gumbi thanked government for the intervention, adding that COVID-19 has had a negative impact on seasonal jobs in the area.

The MECs also oversaw Operation Sigalelekile at Makoti Sportsground, where some community members were able to apply for identity documents, birth certificates, and different government grants.

Gauteng Social Development (DSD) says it is working hard to remedy delays in payment of Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) registered for subsidies.

In a statement on Tuesday, the department said since the week of 26-30 April 2021, it had started with the release of first quarter subsidies and payments to NPOs, and these payments will be made on a weekly basis to the NPOs that have concluded their signing of service level agreements (SLA) for 2021/22 financial year.

According to the department, the delays were due to unforeseen circumstances that the department has managed to resolve.

These included the logistical arrangements of getting the boards of NPOs to sign service level agreements (SLA) for 2021/22 financial year, which has taken longer than anticipated.

“Some NPOs could not be called for signing of SLAs as their NPO registration status had expired, or was not in good standing. Consequently, it meant that they were not meeting the Gauteng DSD funding requirements. However, the matter was escalated to National Social Development for urgent intervention and has been since resolved.

“Operating licences of certain sectors such as the early childhood developments (ECDs), service centres, luncheon clubs, drop-in centres for HIV, are still affected by changes in municipal by-laws which in return affects their ability to meet the Gauteng DSD funding requirements.

“The department decided to obtain a condonation for those affected sectors in the interest of service delivery, whilst a long-term solution is being sought from the affected municipalities,” the department said.

The department added that it has also been experiencing system glitches of not being able to extract scanned documents and this has also caused payment delays.

The department assured that the system glitches have been resolved and NPO payments has commenced.

The department and E-Gov will also continue to timeously intervene on all system technical glitches that may arise in the future, the department said.

“Gauteng department has welcomed all communication received from concerned NPOs and payments will be made. The department appreciates the immeasurable contribution NPOs make in ensuring service delivery and the social protection of the vulnerable and marginalized in our communities,” the department said.

South Africa has recorded 1 129 new COVID-19 cases, with 90 more deaths, the Department of Health said.

A total of 18 311 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, with 1 129 new cases, representing a 6.2% positivity rate.

Meanwhile, 90 more people succumbed to Coronavirus, bringing the tally to 54 825 to date.

Of the latest fatalities, 33 are from the North West, 19 from the Western Cape, 14 from the Eastern Cape, 13 from the Northern Cape, six from Mpumalanga and five from Gauteng.

“We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the healthcare workers who treated the deceased patients,” said Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, on Monday.

According to Mkhize, the recovery rate remains steady at 95% after 1 517 350 patients beat COVID-19, while South Africa is home to 25 549 active cases.

KwaZulu-Natal is still the hardest province with 5 484 people who are currently infected.

The province is followed by 4 715 active cases in Gauteng, 4 580 in Free State, 4 460 in the Northern Cape, 3 846 in the North West, 1 034 in the Western Cape, 866 in Mpumalanga, 340 in Limpopo and 224 in the Eastern Cape.

The Minister reported that the number of vaccinated healthcare workers still stands at 395 230.

According to the World Health Organisation, there are 157 973 438 confirmed global cases of COVID-19, including 3 288 455 deaths, while 1 206 243,409 vaccine doses have been administered as of 10 May 2021.