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Police Minister General Bheki Cele has welcomed the deployment of 200 police officers to the Western Cape as force multipliers in violence-laden hotspots across Cape Town.

The officers were seconded from the national South African Police Service.

Addressing the parade of the officers on Wednesday, Cele said the province continues to experience stubbornly high levels of violent crime.

Cele said the reinforcements could not have come at a better time.

“The Western Cape’s high murder rate is simply unacceptable. In the past week and during the long weekend, 100 people were killed either by stabbing or were shot dead in this province.

“It is important that we put shoulder to the wheel to make sure that the people of this province, especially those living in and around the city of Cape Town, know what peace looks like,” said the Minister.

The brigade, which includes members of visible policing, crime intelligence, forensics and detective services, will focus their skill sets on crime hotspots such as Khayelitsha, Delft, Kraaifontein, Nyanga, Harare and Philippi East.

These areas are in the top 30 police stations with the most contact crimes such murder, attempted murder, aggravated robbery and sexual offences.

Cele told the police members that they remain the most valuable resource in fighting crime. He said there simply can be no room for complacency.

“Your presence in this province must yield results. We cannot afford anything less. The people of this province are sick and tired of crime, and they are relying on you to consistently and effectively flush out criminals.

“At all costs, you must also protect the women and children and the most vulnerable, and remember that drug and alcohol abuse remain the major cause of violence in many of the communities that you are serving,” Cele said.

South Africa has achieved a proud milestone after over 10 million people have been tested for COVID-19 to date, the Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, announced.

According to the Minister, 24 594 people were tested on Wednesday, which pushes the total number to 10 020 025 since the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the country logged 756 new cases, which represents a 3% positivity rate.

Also, 79 more people lost their lives due to COVID-19 related complications.

Both KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng recorded 25 fatalities each in the last 24 hours. In addition, 18 occurred in Free State, six in Mpumalanga, four in the Western Cape and one in the Eastern Cape, which pushes the death toll to 53 111.

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

The recovery remains at 95% after 1 479 821 beat Coronavirus, while the country has 20 677 active cases.

The Minister said the number of healthcare workers vaccinated under the Sisonke Protocol has now increased to 278 909 as of 7 April 2021.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there have been 132 046 206 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2 867 242 deaths, to date.

As of 5 April 2021, a total of 604 032 357 vaccine doses have been administered across the globe.

Global view

Globally, new COVID-19 cases rose for a sixth consecutive week, with over four million new cases reported in the last week, according to the WHO’s weekly epidemiological update.

Meanwhile, the number of new deaths also peaked by 11% compared to last week, with over 71 000 new fatalities reported.

The largest increases in case incidence were observed in South-East Asia, most notably in India and the Western Pacific regions.

“All regions, except for the African region, reported increases in the number of deaths, with the largest increase of 46% from the South-East Asia region,” the WHO noted.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported from India (513 885 new cases, 38% increase), Brazil (505 668 new cases, 5% decrease), the United States of America (444 756 new cases, 5% increase), Turkey (265 937 new cases, 43% increase), and France (244 607 new cases, 4% decrease).

National Treasury says its technicians are working around the clock to solve a technical problem that saw its e-Tender portal experience technical difficulties.

In a statement, the department on Wednesday said the ICT server infrastructure that hosts the e-Tender portal suffered a crash caused by a technical failure.

“This resulted in data corruption, leading to the unavailability of the site. Technicians have been hard at work to solve the problem. Updates will be provided on progress and it is expected to be resolved as a matter of priority,” National Treasury said.

The e-Tender portal downtime does not impact on procurement processes and these should still continue to be adhered to.

The e-Tender portal’s role is to assist in making it easier for suppliers to be informed of government tender opportunities from one central location, while the actual tender processes remain within each individual Organ of State.

The department said while the e-Tender portal is down, tender information can be accessed from the websites of respective organs of State.

“Suppliers should also check newspapers for tender opportunities,” the department said.

National Treasury said it has communicated with all stakeholders on compliance actions that need to be taken by organs of State, including recording proof of where the bids were advertised.

The department said it would notify all affected stakeholders, including suppliers, as soon as the e-Tender portal is functioning again.

Africa should be able to have capacity to manufacture and distribute its own biotechnology to develop vaccines as COVID-19 continues to sweep the globe.

Speaking during the webinar on World Health Day on Wednesday, Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, said depending on other continents should be the thing of the past.

“We should take it as an urgent assignment to make sure that come other pandemics in the future, Africa is capable of manufacturing its own requirements, whether it’s protective gear, pharmaceutical products, diagnostic vaccines and equipment,” he stressed.

Mkhize believes that the continent should not be reliant on other countries as this poses challenges to better respond to the outbreak as many African countries scrambled to get their hands on lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines.

“It’s quite a challenge to rely on other various countries when the entire continent has no access to the manufacturing capacity for vaccines,” he said.

“I think this is a lesson that we must learn now and never be put in a situation where our response is very much dependent on other countries serving their own domestic interests first, while the continent benefits last in the queue.”

He has called for Africa to be self-sufficient, citing Aspen Pharmacare, which is the only drug manufacturer in the continent that is currently producing the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 jabs.

“This needs to be changed for the future,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Minister called for action and pleaded that complacency and individualism be left behind.

Universal healthcare

In addition, he said African governments should continue to lift the most vulnerable from poverty and disenfranchisement by elevating economies, culture and identity.

He said no one should be left behind as governments work towards combating the spread of COVID-19.

In the meantime, nations should secure a reputable, accessible, and sustainable social safety net to protect the vulnerable from the pandemic.

Mkhize acknowledged that South Africa remains one of the world’s most unequal societies, plagued by income disparities.

“The most vulnerable of our people still struggle to access quality health and services, while those in higher-income groups benefit significantly from the health system, irrespective of whether they utilise public or private services.”

He said the public sector serves 84% of the country’s population, while the private sector primarily through medical aid schemes caters for the remaining 16%.

He told the delegates that the key health professionals including general practitioners, specialists, dentists and audiologists, mostly work in private practice and serve households with higher income.

“This is despite the need for their services being greatest amongst the lower-income and vulnerable groups,” he said.

He told delegates that 24.8% of the much-needed specialists are employed in the public sector, while 75% are in the private sector.

“Therefore, the universal healthcare coverage agenda is critical for our context as further highlighted by the pandemic.”

He believes the implementation of the National Health Insurance is a critical intervention to restructure the core components of the healthcare system, which will allow better use and access to medical care.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, inequality is not a new problem.

“But COVID-19 has brought it into sharp focus. The pandemic has pushed an estimated 120 million people into extreme poverty, and significantly increased gender inequalities, with more women than men leaving the labour force.”

Ghebreyesus said health inequalities make the world less safe and less sustainable.

“As we build back from COVID-19, it’s vital to invest in better health services and remove the barriers that prevent so many people from using them – so more people have the chance to live healthy lives.”

The Department of Employment and Labour has welcomed the Special Investigation Unit’s (SIU) probe into allegations of corruption and maladministration of the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s special COVID-19 TERS benefits.

This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed a proclamation authorising the investigation.

The department’s Director-General Thobile Lamati said: “We welcome the probe into allegations of possible corruption and maladministration into the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s [UIF] special COVID-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (TERS) benefits”.

In a statement on Wednesday, the DG said the department has been working with the SIU in any event when the first probe was launched.

“We are just as anxious to get to the bottom of the allegations and to gain sight to all the facts and which would hopefully bring a close to this chapter,” he said.

“Over the last year, the UIF has had a major impact to the lives of workers in this country, distributing an unprecedented over R60 billion to help workers cope with the lockdown blues and we wouldn’t want to have this great work sullied by allegations of corruption and maladministration.

“If any of our officials are found to have been part of the alleged corruption, we will make sure that they face disciplinary action and that the law enforcement agencies prosecute them. We cannot tolerate any corruption and we applaud the President for taking this step in fighting corruption,” he said.

The UIF had on its own initiative, employed the expertise of forensic auditors to launch its own investigation in a “Follow the Money” campaign.

This campaign is following on every cent paid to ensure that those who received monies and were not entitled to it, to pay it back and for the companies that swindled their workers to pay back the money to the UIF.

So far, over R2-billion has been returned to the coffers of the Fund.

The investigation will focus squarely on the payments of COVID-19 TERS benefits to people who were not entitled to receive such payments or submitted false, irregular, invalid or defective applications to the UIF, including the causes of such maladministration.

“The investigation will look at payments that dates back to 1 March 2020 and 1 April 2021 or that took place after 1 April but relevant to, connected with or involve same people, entities or contracts being investigated,” said the department.

The SIU has already been involved in investigation of TERS payments under a secondment agreement with the Department of Employment and Labour, which has since expired.

The investigation uncovered a number of irregularities in the TERS payments, which prompted the SIU to apply for a proclamation.

Gospel artist and medical doctor, Dr Tumi Makweya and his wife have been released on bail after being arrested for allegedly defrauding the National Lotteries Board (NLB).

Makweya and his wife, Kgaogelo Sara Makweya, on Tuesday appeared at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court and were granted bail of R3 000 each.

It is alleged that Makweya and his wife were listed as committee members at a non-profit organisation. They allegedly submitted altered grant application documents to the National Lotteries Board for approval of funds on projects in 2018.

Investigations have revealed that the couple — together with their co-accused, Christopher Tshivule and Thomas Ndadza, who were released on R5 000 bail each — allegedly altered information on the documents submitted to the National Lotteries Board in September 2018, which resulted in over R1.5 million being transferred into a private bank account.

Makweya and his wife allegedly benefitted approximately R760 000 from the funds.

The case was postponed to 7 May 2021 for docket disclosure.

South Africa has signed a deal for the procurement of 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccines.

According to the announcement made by Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, payment processes are also underway to close the deal in the next few days.

In addition, with the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) agreement also fully concluded, Mkhize believes that this sets the stage for a significant and rapid expansion of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme.

“We can also confirm that the final tranche of 200 000 Johnson & Johnson doses for the Sisonke Protocol is expected to arrive on 10 April 2021. These doses will take us to the last mile of the Sisonke Protocol, which is set to become one of the most seminal studies in the history of the pandemic,” the Minister said on Monday.

According to the latest information, the number of healthcare workers vaccinated now stand at 272 438 as of 6 April 2021.

Likewise, he said the country will also embark on an implementation study with a limited number of Pfizer doses used amongst healthcare workers, which he describes as another valuable contribution to the science of mass vaccination.

“In preparation for the mass vaccination campaign, we have undertaken a deep study of the Sisonke Protocol to draw lessons from the programme and enhance the efficiency of future operations.”

In addition, stakeholders have continued to be engaged across all sectors to “sensitise” government to the needs of various communities.

“Upon deeper inspection and reflection, the Department of Health has worked on a revised strategy to ensure that the vaccination campaign targets the most pressing public health and the economic relief that vaccination should achieve. These revisions will require extensive yet urgent consultation to ensure that the final programme expresses the will of the people,” said the Minister.

Upon completion of the ratification process, the department will announce the details of the revised vaccination programme to the public and call on the first group of eligible citizens to register on the Electronic Vaccination System.

“I wish to thank all government officials, business partners and social partners who are working around the clock to ensure that the programme is efficient, safe and exemplary. We look forward to announcing the details in the days to come,” he added.

With South Africa hosting the 2023 Netball World Cup (NWC), Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, has announced the NWC board.

Addressing a media briefing on Tuesday, the Minister said the Cape Town International Convention Centre will host the 2023 NWC from 17 July to 8 August 2023.

South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) Chief Operations Officer, Patience Shikwambana, has been appointed chairperson of the board.

Other board members include:

• City of Cape Town Councillor, Jean-Pierre (JP) Smith: Member of the Mayoral committee;
• Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport Chief Director – Sport and Recreation, Dr Lyndon Bouah;
• President – Netball Africa and Member of International Netball Federation (INF), Cecilia Molokwane;
• Netball SA CEO, Blanche de le Guerre and
• Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Deputy Director General: Recreation Development and Sport Promotion Sumayya Khan.

The responsibilities of the board include:

• Strategic overall guidance and compliance.

• Approval of all contractual obligations.

• Finalization of an Organisational structure for the OC.

• Financial oversight to ensure continued solvency of the OC.

• Approval of all requisite policies.

• Overall project coordination and reporting.

South Africa has a 1 552 853 COVID-19 caseload – after 437 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus on Monday.

In addition, the death toll has now crossed 53 000 after 37 more people succumbed to the respiratory disease in the last 24 hours.

Of the latest fatalities, 16 were recorded in Free State, nine in Gauteng and eight in the Eastern Cape, pushing the tally to 53 032 since the outbreak.

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

Meanwhile, the Minister announced that the recovery rate remains at 95% after 1 478 820 people recuperated from COVID-19.

According to the latest data, the country is home to 21 001 active cases, with KwaZulu-Natal remaining the hardest hit province with 5 768 patients who are currently infected.

The province is followed by 5 089 active cases in the Western Cape, 2 807 in the Northern Cape, 2 176 in the North West, 2 119 in Gauteng, 1 720 in Free State, 839 in Mpumalanga, 287 in Limpopo and 196 in the Eastern Cape.

The information is based on the 9 995 431 tests of which 16 137 were performed since the last report.

Also, the number of healthcare workers vaccinated now stand at 272 438 as of 6 April 2021.

Globally, there have been 131 487 572 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2 857 702 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.

As motorists prepare to hit the road ahead of the Easter weekend, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala has urged motorists not to drink and drive.

“We are fighting head-on and dealing with the issues of drinking and driving. If a person wants to drink, that person must stay at home and drink at home. We don’t want anything that will cause a problem for us,” Zikalala said.

The Premier was speaking at the launch of the Easter Road Safety Campaign at the N3 Mariannhill Toll Plaza on Wednesday.

The campaign aims to promote responsible road use over the Easter long-weekend and beyond.

Zikalala, who was accompanied by MEC of Transport Community Safety and Liaison, Peggy Nkonyeni, said the provincial government wants to use the campaign to reduce the rate of road fatalities.

“It is known that during any holiday, but especially a long weekend like the Easter holiday, we have many people coming into KwaZulu-Natal. KZN is still a destination in terms of domestic tourists, and that’s why we want to enforce the rules and laws in our roads.

“We want to fight seriously and strictly against speeding because that’s caused accidents… we want to encourage drivers to take a rest or a break of 15 minutes after every 2 hours. We also want to encourage people not to drive and use cell phones,” the Premier said.

During the launch, a total of 1279 vehicles were stopped in a multi-disciplinary roadblock at the Mariannhill Toll Plaza, with 30 various charges and one suspension.

Zikalala said this is expected to increase as the Easter weekend kicks on as the province anticipates an influx of people and increased traffic volumes, with travels to work, leisure and pilgrims.

He said the road block was intended to check the road safety worthiness of vehicles, compliance of COVID-19 protocols and driver capability.

“What we want is to ensure that people follow all protocols of COVID-19 and ensure that road users follow protocols and obey the rules and the law,” said Zikalala.

Nkonyeni said that the department will conduct other strategic operations over the Easter weekend.

“We want to ensure that our road users are driving on our roads responsibly so, they avoid consumption of alcohol before they arrive at their destinations, checking their speed limits and also to ensure that drivers have a passenger list for long distance travelling,” Nkonyeni said.

The Premier wished the holiday makers coming to the province a joyful Easter holiday.

“We wish the religious community a revival and rejuvenating Easter weekend.”