Have They Found The New Earth? This New Planet Has The Right Conditions to Hold Water
By: Illovuonline news team
20-04-2020
Image: NASA
This newly revealed world is only 1.06 times larger than our own planet. Also, the amount of starlight it receives from its host star is 75 per cent of the amount of light Earth receives from our Sun — meaning the exoplanet’s temperature may be similar to our planet’s, as well.
Using re-analysed data from NASAs Kepler space telescope, a team of scientists has discovered an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could support liquid water. Out of all the exoplanets found by Kepler, this distant world — located 300 light-years from Earth — is most similar to Earth in size and estimated temperature, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Scientists discovered this planet, called Kepler-1649c, when looking through old observations from Kepler, which the agency retired in 2018. While previous searches with a computer algorithm misidentified it, researchers reviewing Kepler data took a second look at the signature and recognised it as a planet.
This newly revealed world is only 1.06 times larger than our own planet. Also, the amount of starlight it receives from its host star is 75 per cent of the amount of light Earth receives from our Sun — meaning the exoplanet’s temperature may be similar to our planet’s, as well. But unlike Earth, it orbits a red dwarf. This type of star is known for stellar flare-ups that may make a planet’s environment challenging for any potential life. “This intriguing, distant world gives us even greater hope that a second Earth lies among the stars, waiting to be found,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The data gathered by missions like Kepler and our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will continue to yield amazing discoveries as the science community refines its abilities to look for promising planets year after year.”
There is still much that is unknown about Kepler-1649c, including its atmosphere, which could affect the planet’s temperature. Current calculations of the planet’s size have significant margins of error, as do all values in astronomy when studying objects so far away. Rocky planets orbiting red dwarfs are of particular astrobiological interest. However, astrobiologists will need much more information about this planet in order to gage whether it is promising for life as we know it. But based on what is known, Kepler-1649c is especially intriguing for scientists looking for worlds with potentially habitable conditions.
There are other exoplanets estimated to be closer to Earth in size, such as TRAPPIST-1f and, by some calculations, Teegarden c. Others may be closer to Earth in temperature, such as TRAPPIST-1d and TOI 700d. But there is no other exoplanet that is considered to be closer to Earth in both of these values that also lies in the habitable zone of its system. Kepler-1649c orbits its small red dwarf star so closely that a year on Kepler-1649c is equivalent to only 19.5 Earth days. “Out of all the mislabeled planets we’ve recovered, this one’s particularly exciting — not just because it’s in the habitable zone and Earth-size, but because of how it might interact with this neighbouring planet,” said Andrew Vanderburg, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin and first author on the paper. “If we hadn’t looked over the algorithm’s work by hand, we would have missed it,” Vanderburg said.
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People have been awakened’: seeking Covid-19 answers in Wuhan
By: illovuonline news team
20-04-2020
Image: Guardian/site
Residents are looking for an explanation from the government about its handling of coronavirus
In early January, Hu Aizhen, 65, heard that a new coronavirus had emerged in her home city, Wuhan. She was not worried – officials said it was not contagious – so she went about her days as usual and prepared for the lunar new year at the end of the month.
Just before the city was put under lockdown, Hu developed pneumonia symptoms. After days of waiting and searching for a hospital, she was tested for the virus. Her result was negative, but tests at the time were known to be inaccurate and she showed obvious signs of the virus. Nevertheless, she was refused treatment by six hospitals.
Hu, who had always been healthy, stayed at home for 10 days, unable to drink or eat, while her health deteriorated. When she took a further turn for the worse, her son tried to get her to a hospital in another district but police stopped them. Under lockdown orders they could not cross into another district. Her son, desperate, shouted at the traffic officers: “Are you not people?”
When Hu was finally admitted to a hospital on 8 February, she was struggling to breathe. The doctor ordered another test, but it was too late. She regained consciousness briefly, asking her son to pour her some water. Then she died.
Hu’s son is now suing the Wuhan municipal government for allegedly concealing the seriousness of the virus, among other complaints, according to court documents prepared by Funeng, a public welfare NGO based in Changsha. Hu’s son is among a small but significant group of residents seeking answers, compensation or simply an apology from officials who took weeks to notify the public of the threat from a virus that went on to claim the lives of at least 4,000 people in China, according to government figures, most of them in Wuhan.
Other cases include a civil servant suing the Hubei provincial government, a mother petitioning for officials to be punished after watching her 24-year-old daughter die of the virus, and a son who rushed his quickly fading mother to a hospital in the suburbs of Wuhan where he was able to get her admitted to intensive care. When he went to pick up supplies for her, he received a phone call from the hospital. His mother had died.
“None of this would have happened if they had told us. So many people would not have had to die,” said a relative involved in one of the lawsuits. Another said: “I want an answer. I want those responsible to be punished under the law.”
Zhang Hai’s father, Zhang Lifa, who died on 1 February from coronavirus in Wuhan, aged 76.
As the outbreak spread in China, with thousands of confirmed cases a day at its peak, public anger reached levels not seen in decades, posing a serious threat to the ruling Chinese communist party. When the whistleblower doctor Li Wenliangdied from the virus in February, censors could not keep up with the flood of outrage online. It was a moment some compared to the outpouring over the death of Hu Yaobang that precipitated the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
A little more than two months on, the resentment is much less visible. Accounts like Hu Aizhen’s have been replaced by positive stories of the country coming together to defeat the virus, sending needed supplies to the rest of the world and fighting malicious attacks from the US and other countries blaming Beijing for the outbreak.
“People are easily led by propaganda,” said Shi, a human rights activist based in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital. “As the epidemic situation has improved and the propaganda machine works, there has been a reversal. Now people are saying the strong leadership of the party is a good thing.”
As Wuhan and the rest of the country slowly return to normal, authorities are carefully monitoring those who might harbour resentment. Zhang Hai, 50, whose father died from the virus in February, was part of a WeChat group of more than 100 people who lost relatives to the virus.
In late March they were told they could retrieve their loved ones’ remains from funeral homes. No more than five could go together at one time, and they had to be accompanied by a local government representative. Zhang refused to go. Later, the group’s host was called in by the police and the WeChat group was deleted.
“Now everyone is trying to be very careful,” said Zhang, who is calling for the government to issue an apology. “I know a lot of families who are incredibly angry.”
Tan Jun, a civil servant in Yichang in Hubei province, filed a complaint this month accusing the Hubei provincial government of concealing the outbreak, according to copies of the lawsuit posted online. Tan confirmed the lawsuit but declined to be interviewed. Other residents in Wuhan who spoke to the Guardian said they had been intimidated by local police and forced to promise not to speak out.
“People must take responsibility. As a resident of Hubei, I believe it is necessary to stand up and call on the Hubei government to take responsibility,” Tan said, according to an article posted on several WeChat accounts that has now been deleted.
While authorities in Beijing have punished local officials by replacing them – what observers say is an age-old tactic for deflecting blame from the central government – residents say this is not enough.
“That is not accountability. That is switching hats,” said Wu, 49, who says she contracted the virus in January but was not officially diagnosed until March. In hospital she watched people around her die, including a woman in the next bed. Recently she learned that a classmate of hers who got sick around the same time had passed away.
“When I was laying in bed thinking I might soon die, I thought: how did this happen?” said Wu, who is suing her hospital for not confirming her as a coronavirus patient when she was released. “Regular people have limited access to real information. We rely on the government. We believe what the government says.”
Dissent has spread in other ways. Dozens of shop owners at a shopping mall in Wuhan demonstrated this month, demanding rent reductions after months of not being able to open their stores. In Yingcheng, a city west of Wuhan, residents put under lockdown protested against the high prices for food imposed by community management. One of the protesters, Zeng Chunzhi, has reportedly been detained.
“People have been awakened. That’s for sure,” said Xie Yanyi, a rights lawyer based in Beijing. Xie has filed a request for information from the government, including the origins of the virus and reasons for the delay in informing the public of the outbreak. “It may not be many people, but history shows that it is the few who change society and who change history,” Xie said.
In Wuhan, most residents are relieved that the worst of the epidemic appears to be over as they watch other countries struggle to contain it. Employees wait in lines outside of office buildings to have their throats swabbed, to make sure they do not have the virus before going back to work.
On the riverbank in Hankou district, a couple kiss in front of what has become a nightly light show of skyscrapers lit up with congratulatory messages. Many residents say they appreciate what their country has done for them.
The chance that cases such as Hu’s will be accepted and go to court are not high, according to Yan Zhanqing, a co-founder of Funeng. More likely, those involved will be intimidated or harassed. But in some cases, especially determined plaintiffs can get compensation, which is one form of apology.
“These cases apply pressure on the government and help more people understand their rights and the government’s responsibility,” Yan said. “This is also a way of documenting history, letting more people know the truth, and not just the government’s version of what happened in Wuhan.”
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Coronavirus: WHO says Africa could soon be the hotspot for the virus
The World Health Organization has cautioned that the African continent could become the epicentre of coronavirus – This is due to the sharp rise in Covid-19 confirmed cases in the past week.
The WHO highlighted that the continent does not have enough ventilators to deal with such a pandemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that the African continent could become the next epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. According to the Organization, this is due to the sharp rise in Covid-19 confirmed cases in the past week.
In a BBC report, the WHO highlighted that the continent does not have enough ventilators to deal with a pandemic as grave and complicated as the novel virus.
The African director of the WHO, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said the organization had witnessed the virus spreading from capital cities to “the hinterlands” in South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana.
She said they were focusing on prevention rather than treating the virus because African countries don’t have the capacity to treat many coronavirus patients.
“We want to minimise the proportion of people who get to the point of needing critical care in an ICU, because we know that these types of facilities are not adequate by any means in the majority of African countries,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti said.
She added that she was most worried about the issue of ventilators since they are the biggest challenge that the countries are facing.
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How the coronavirus outbreak in India was blamed on Muslims
By: illovuonline news team
20-04-2020
Image: CF
The COVID-19 pandemic has been turned into yet another Islamophobic conspiracy theory.
The outbreak of COVID-19 in India has presented yet another opportunity to launch a fresh attack on the Muslim community. Physical, verbal and psychological warfare is being waged against Muslims, pushing further their ostracisation in Indian society.
Violent attacks on Muslims perceived to be carriers of the virus have been reported from different parts of the country. There have been reports of meetings in gated communities discussing the prohibition on Muslims being allowed in. Elsewhere, gangs of youth have been manning the entry points of villages to prevent the entry of Muslims. Muslim vendors have also been asked to stop selling on the streets.
There has been a sudden surge in Islamophobic hashtags and posts on different social media platforms accusing Muslims of purposefully spreading the virus. A new term, “corona jihad”, has been coined to describe this conspiracy. Videos showing Muslims spitting on vegetables and fruit, licking plates and smearing surfaces with their saliva are being circulated widely.
It all started when news spread that people who had attended a large gathering of Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary movement, at its premises in New Delhi had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. People travelled from outside India to attend this event and it is suspected that they may have introduced the virus into the congregation.
The Tablighi Jamaat was blamed for organising this event in the middle of March, ignoring the threat of the spread of the virus. Very soon, reports started pouring in from different parts of India suggesting that the largest number of positive cases could be traced back to the event.
This became a justification for the government to create a separate column of Tablighi Jamaat-related cases in its daily briefings. It has created an impression that the Muslim movement is the main culprit. Since it is difficult for many to differentiate between Tablighis and other Muslims, all Muslims are now seen as potential carriers of this virus and are therefore shunned and hated.
But some have questioned the methodology of COVID-19 testing and reporting. According to Saugato Datta, a behavioural and developmental economist, highlighting the large proportion of overall positive cases that are linked to the New Delhi event is misleading, given that the authorities did not aggressively trace and test people from other gatherings like it.
“This is basically sampling bias: Since people from this one cluster have been tested at very high rates, and overall testing is low, it is hardly surprising that a large proportion of overall positives is attributed to this cluster,” Datta said.
As some have pointed out, the Tablighi Jamaat event was only one of the many congregations, religious and non-religious, which happened in mid-March. At that time, the government of India tried to downplay the gravity of the situation, allowing the parliament to function and letting nearly 1.5 million people enter the country without proper screening between January and March. The Tablighi Jamaat guests were a tiny fraction of this number.
Despite this, Indian media launched a high-decibel campaign about the matter. One newspaper went as far as publishing a cartoon depicting the coronavirus as a terrorist in Muslim attire.
Similarly, social media has been abuzz with posts about what many consider to be a Muslim conspiracy. A tweet which had about 2,000 retweets before it was removed for violating Twitter’s rules, featured a cartoon of a caricatured Muslim man labelled “corona Jihad” trying to push a Hindu off a cliff.
These sentiments have been fuelled by official channels as well. Officers from the Border Security forces have claimed that there is a plot for people from a particular community (read Muslim) to infiltrate the porous borders of India through Nepal with the aim of spreading the infection here.
Even the government of India is adding to this campaign in a very subtle manner. It recently sent a memo to the government of West Bengal state expressing concern that it was failing to implement the lockdown strictly in certain areas. It mentioned seven localities in the state, of which six are distinctly Muslim dominated.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, reacted very strongly to the directive and asked the central government not to use this crisis to further its communal agenda.
The excitement and enthusiasm with which this anti-Muslim campaign has been taken up is a deeply worrying phenomenon.
It adds to already existing conspiracy theories about Muslims waiting in the wings, reproducing at a frantic pace to outnumber Hindus and “pollute” the Hindu land. Since the community was already seen as plotting to inflict damage on “Mother India”, it was easy to “establish” that Muslims would seek to infect Hindus with coronavirus to destroy them.
This campaign has not only fed existing anti-Muslim sentiments but it has also slowed down the momentum gained by a protest movement, which had been demonstrating against the increasingly precarious situation of the community. For months before the outbreak, Muslims and their allies across India had been protesting against the new citizenship law and other executive exercises like the National Register of Citizens and National Population Register, which were seen as discriminatory against the community.
While undermining political efforts to end government-sponsored discrimination, the outbreak and its accompanying anti-Muslim drive may lead to even further ostracisation of the community.
Muslims are hardly present in the formal sector of the economy and their number is insignificant in the state services. The largest working population of Muslims is in the informal sector. This campaign is pushing to make them “untouchable” for non-Muslims, which would certainly push them out of a variety of economic activities.
Muslims have been disenfranchised politically, now this campaign can break them economically and make their survival impossible.
It is disheartening to see the world watching silently this continuous persecution of the largest religious minority in India. It would go down as yet another dark chapter in the making of a new kind of apartheid against Muslims in the biggest democracy in the world.
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We should be grateful for the conditions that allow us to exist at all, for they won’t last forever
By: illovuonline news team
19-04-2020
Image: online
Mother Nature has its nuanced way of educating us. Following a century of scientific and technological advances that triggered unprecedented economic growth, our civilization perceived its superiority over nature as undisputed.
Like corrections to irrationally exuberant stock markets, however, COVID-19 is a correction to human hubris. Nature is teaching all humans, rich and poor, to be humble. Although we thought we can manipulate nature at our will, here comes a primitive coronavirus with negligible information content relative to our brain, threatening to kill us and wreck our economy, causing as much damage from the side effects triggered by our societal reaction to it as from its direct medical impact.
Personally, I practiced social distancing long before it became trendy. In my mind, it was evident before the appearance of COVID-19 that we are fundamentally “monads” as envisioned by the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, despite illusive notions of empowerment that stem from groupthink. Social distancing benefits free thinking. Isaac Newton did his best scientific work while staying home with his parents at Woolsthorpe during the Great Plague of London in 1665–66, when Cambridge University closed down. Over a year of independent work, he developed calculus, optics and realized the nature of gravity.
But there is another lesson to be learned. A few years earlier, Newton wrote a document that, among other things, listed the sins he’d committed “Before Whitsunday 1662.” Number 13 on the list: “Threatening my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them.”As a student of history, I am doing my best to be nice to my daughters during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Beyond existential lessons, however, COVID-19 has sparked international scientific collaborations demonstrating that science has no borders when it comes to promoting a better common future for our civilization. Just as the novel coronavirus can infect everyone, a successful vaccine can benefit everyone. Scientific triumphs are for all of us to share. Science is not a zero-sum, but rather an infinite-sum, game. Here’s hoping that in the wake of COVID-19, international scientific collaborations will lead to more goodwill among nations and better political collaboration across the globe in our future.
The most fundamental lesson is simple. We must treasure all the good that nature gives us rather than take it for granted, because it can easily disappear. Over the next century, trillions of dollars could be lost not just from pandemics like COVID-19 but also from major solar flares or asteroid impacts. We’d better prepare protections for those before they hit us.
On longer timescales, even bigger catastrophes might occur, such as explosions of nearby stars or a brightening of the sun that will boil off our oceans less than a billion years from now.
As I told students over Zoom in my freshman seminar at Harvard last week, life as we know it is merely an afterthought in the global scheme of the cosmos. The universe started off consisting mainly of hydrogen and helium. Heavy elements like carbon and oxygen, which enable the chemistry of life, are the “ashes” from nuclear burning in the hot cores of stars. Our transient existence has lasted for less than 10 one-billionths of cosmic history so far on a tiny rock we call Earth, surrounded by a vast lifeless space. We should be thankful for the fortuitous circumstances that allow us to exist, because they will surely go away one day, with or without COVID-19.
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All is not well’: KZN premier promises ‘intensified’ lockdown in Durban
By: illovuonline news team
19-04-2020
Image: Sihle Zikalala/Twitter
There will be “no compromises” in the enforcement of the national lockdown in Durban, as the coastal city has become KwaZulu-Natal’s Covid-19 epicentre.
This was the stern warning from premier Sihle Zikalala on Sunday.
“We want to inform you that all is not well,” said Zikalala. “We need to take urgent and drastic action because we are at risk of losing this battle if we behave as if all is normal.”
Currently, KwaZulu-Natal is the third worst-hit province in SA in terms of the number of Covid-19 cases, behind only Gauteng and the Western Cape. However, 40% of the country’s deaths from the respiratory illness have been in the province — 21 of the 52 fatalities.
Zikalala said, KwaZulu-Natal also accounts for 83 of the patients admitted in both private and public health care facilities, which is 15% of the national total. Sixty-one of them are in private hospitals, according to the figures he provided, and three are in intensive care.
But, said Zikalala, eThekwini was overwhelmingly the provinces’s epicentre, with 65% of all cases in KwaZulu-Natal being from the Durban-based metro.
This, said the premier, meant that strict measures had to be put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which causes the Covid-19 illness.
“It has become crystal clear that eThekwini has become the epicentre of Covid-19 in KwaZulu-Natal. Although this may be explained by the fact that eThekwini is a metro, and has the highest concentration of the population of KwaZulu-Natal, these figures are nevertheless extremely worrying.
“This new emerging trend is indicative of the fact that too many people and some institutions are not adhering to the lockdown regulations. This kind of behaviour must stop,” he said.
As a result, “urgent and decisive action” was needed.
“Such action needs to be taken now and by all of us.
“It is for these reasons that we have decided … to implement an intensified lockdown for eThekwini. We have issued a directive to our law enforcement authorities to apply the law in its strictest form, and make sure that there are no compromises. We want them to make sure that the violation of the lockdown by people who are supposed to be at home is met with the concomitant punishment as set out by the law,” he said.
This meant more police officers’ and soldiers’ boots on the ground. Increased roadblocks were also promised.
“We wish to once again plead with our people to stay at home, and respect the law. This is a health emergency. We are in disaster mode. It is not business as usual,” said Zikalala.
Other intervention measures included:
Sweeping door-to-door screening;
Removal of infectious sources to specified isolation sites;
Set-up testing and screening booths in areas of major movements (malls, transport routes/taxi ranks);
Adjustment and intensification of community containment interventions; and
Informal settlements sanitisation programme.
Meanwhile, the DA in eThekwini has submitted a proposal to city leaders on the current situation — saying that major budgetary changes were needed in combination with assistance for those hardest hit.
“The municipality is going to have to take some tough and decisive action to reallocate funding to ensure that it has the capacity to respond and protect its citizens during this pandemic.
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KZN informal traders and small businesses to get help with Covid-19 relief applications
By: illovuonline news team
19-04-2020
Image: online
The KZN department of economic development, tourism & environmental affairs and its public entity Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) have offered to help SMMEs and informal traders to apply for Covid-19 relief funds.
The KZN department of economic development, tourism & environmental affairs and its public entity Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) have offered to help SMMEs and informal traders to apply for Covid-19 relief funds.
The KwaZulu-Natal government and public entity Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) will help informal traders and small businesses to apply for Covid-19 relief funding.
“The KwaZulu-Natal provincial department of Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) and its public entity TIKZN wish to express their support for all businesses and SMMEs who have been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The national government has set up funds to support various categories of businesses from informal traders, to SMMEs and co-operatives to cope with the financial circumstances they find themselves in.
“EDTEA, through the investSA KwaZulu-Natal One Stop Shop administered by TIKZN, will be assisting businesses in packaging of applications to the various relief funding schemes offered by the national government departments. The One Stop Shop has been designated to be the central point of co-ordination for KwaZulu-Natal business,” TIKZN said on Thursday.
The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the KwaZulu-Natal Business Chambers Council, through their private sector network, are also helping with other services such as IT, legal, marketing and access to financial support. These services will be done on a pro bono basis.
TIKZN board chairperson Ina Cronjé said that for most businesses near-term survival was the only agenda item, while others are peering through the fog of uncertainty, thinking about how to position themselves once the crisis has passed”.
“The reality is that the new normal will bring a set of new challenges. While no-one can say how long the crisis will last, what we find on the other side will not look like the normal of recent years. We are pleased that through EDTEA, Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal has been passed the baton to help in facilitating applications for businesses. Our One Stop Shop facility will be the point of contact for these businesses. Our focus is to make every possible means available to help companies to turn around.”
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The department of economic development’s acting head of department, Sihle Mkhize, said the government understood that small players such as co-operatives and traders, which included street traders and hawkers, had been badly affected.
“We undertake not to leave small players behind, as they play a critical role in our economy. This facility will be extended to those in the informal trade, hence EDTEA’s small-business support programme will play a major role.”
TIKZN said the initiative was made possible through the support of the private sector.
Companies such as LNN Capital and others had offered their services pro-bono and come on board to augment the capacity of the One Stop Shop.
“This pandemic has really hit a number of companies hard and it is important that we assist in the creation of a platform aimed at helping businesses apply for relief. We do not guarantee the outcome, as the relief measures have their own requirements and screening processes; however, we are trying to help companies manoeuvre through the paperwork and compliance requirements of these instruments. The business community is urged to take advantage of this offering designed to service their needs at a single stop and under one roof.
“I want to thank the private sector and the chamber movement for coming on board in the spirit of ubuntu by providing their services free to help other businesses survive this crisis” said TIKZN CEO Neville Matjie.
All businesses and SMMEs wishing to use the services of the One-Stop-Shop operating under TIKZN may contact TIKZN during office hours, on 031 368 9602 or e-mail business.support@tikzn.co.za
It might be over for Idols judge Somizi – SABC speaks out after asking him to step aside
By: illovuonline news team
19-04-2020
Image: Somizi/ Instagram
Metro FM presenter and Idols judge Somizi Mhlongo-motaung has survived the SABC’S axe- for now- and is set to return to work tomorrow.
This comes after the reality TV star and professional choreographer was asked to step aside by the SABC pending the outcome of an investigation into his conduct, which was also deemed to be in breach of lockdown regulations on spreading fake news.
Somgaga, as Mhlongo-motaung is known among his fans, had lied that Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula told him that President Cyril Ramaphosa would extend the lockdown before it was officially announced.
But he later apologised to Mbalula and the nation for his action, claiming that it was all a bad joke.
Mhlongo-motaung, who co-presents The Bridge with Dineo Ranaka and Lerato Kganyago on Mzansi’s biggest commercial radio station, was expected to be axed by Metro FM, according to senior officials.
SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo said the SABC decided that Mhlongo-motaung should return to work tomorrow. The decision, she said, was taken after he was subjected to the organisation’s internal policies and processes.
“The SABC views the matter concerning Somizi Mhlongo-motaung in a serious light. It is also imperative to note that this matter was referred to the law-enforcement authorities.
As a responsible employee, we will allow the law to take its course and the matter reach its logical conclusion,” said Seapolelo.
Mhlongo-motaung has been absent from the airwaves since the incident, and his woes were also compounded by Mbalula, who opened a case against him at Sandton police station.
Mhlongo-motaung was subsequently arrested and later released on R1 500 bail after he handed himself over to police.
Mhlongo-motaung was likely to face the chop, senior officials had argued that Mbalula’s case had made it difficult to save him.
“Mbalula compounded his problems by opening a case against him. He could only be saved if Mbalula dropped the charges against him, which is highly unlikely because he too was protecting his integrity. Because the way things happened, it created an impression that Mbalula leaked the information to him,” said a deep throat privy to the matter.
The tipster also said they prayed that Mhlongo-motaung would not act emotionally and resign.
“There is hope that he will survive this because, to be honest , listeners love him to bits,” said the source.
The informant said the station had accepted his apology, but said that it was a little too late, as the matter was now out of the SABC’S reach and control.
However, like a cat, Mhlongo-motaung has proven to have nine lives, as he survived the axe for his controversial statements, which also breached the lockdown regulations.
Mhlongo-motaung had not responded to any questions.
We will allow the law to take its cause and the matter reach its logical conclusion.
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SA teacher in China on ‘forced quarantine’ for Africans
By: illovuonline news team
19-04-2020
Image: Source
A South African teacher who lives in Shunde, Foshan, in the Guangdong province of China, says her family lives in constant fear of being subjected to forced quarantine and multiple Covid-19 tests.
The primary school teacher, whose name is known to illovuonline news, lives with her husband, also a middle school teacher.
Jessica* said they returned to Foshan on 16 March from their hometown, George, to resume their duties after being on holiday.
She says, upon their arrival in the province, they were quarantined for two weeks, with cameras installed outside their residence to ensure they did not leave.
After testing for the virus on 25 March, their results returned negative.
They finished their quarantine period on 30 March.
But what came after that was shocking for the 40-year-old.
She said they started noticing strange behaviour towards foreigners.
As if that was not enough, she said on 9 April they then received a call from her school’s HR department instructing the couple to pack their bags and go to the police station, because they were going to be taken to a hotel for quarantine.
When Jessica questioned why they were returning to quarantine after testing negative, she said she was told: “We don’t know. The government said so.”
When they arrived at the hotel, Jessica said they noticed that it was only people from Africa who were there.
“[There was] a guy from Morocco, a lady who’s got dual citizenship with Namibia and South Africa, another lady was from the Eastern Cape.
And we were just like, where are other people? It is only people from Africa.
“Even to this day, there has been no official letter and explanation as to why we had to go in. We packed because they also said if we refuse to come, the police would come to our house and arrest us and take us there,” Jessica said.
Her two friends from Pretoria who arrived on 4 and 5 March were also subjected to the treatment.
She said that, while on the way to the hotel, they then heard for the first time that Africans were being subjected to forced testing, random isolation and evictions in Guangzhou, which is about a two-hour drive from their province.
“We went into the hotel and got tested again for the virus, and two days ago we got tested again. So we have been tested three times now for the virus. Every time the results are negative and they told us yesterday that we could leave. We are at home right now in self-isolation.”
Chinese Consul General to South Africa Tang Zhongdong has denied allegations that Africans in China were mistreated.
He was speaking at a handover ceremony with Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku on Tuesday, where 30 000 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) were donated.
He was responding to the widespread media coverage of what was happening to Africans in China.
But Jessica said the denial was far from the truth, based on the her first-hand experience along with her African friends who are teaching in the country.
She said there was continued “blatant discrimination” against them.
“You will see mothers literally taking their kids out of the way, people not wanting to get into the lifts and some foreigners who go to gym, they are told they need to show their papers showing they quarantined,” she said.
Jessica claims that the treatment people from Africa are receiving is not the same as for foreigners from the UK and USA, who have been left in isolation and not forced to test.
“We have colleagues and friends from US who have not even been quarantined. They [are] only isolated. They were never tested. My colleague from England never tested and when we ask why this is happening, we are told it’s because of the many black people in Guanzhong who have got the virus. It’s shocking how racist people are. The stuff they say.”
“It’s just the unfairness and blatant discrimination. Just because we’re from Africa, we have to go through this over and over again, but nothing is happening to the people from UK and USA.”
Regardless of the current uncertainty, Jessica said she is lucky to at least have her husband with her, but is worried about her friends who are single – and have to be alone when asked to quarantine.
She said, although the situation in their province was not as bad as getting evicted, they were still stressed.
She added that they had to get tested again next week, which would make it their fourth test.
It is very difficult to be in self-isolation, especially alone in the country, because there are no gardens where they live, she adds.
“My friends are single and are in seclusion. It’s hard for them because it’s not like in SA where there are gardens for them. We live in apartment buildings. We are on 18th and 20th floors and that in itself makes us anxious.”
The teacher said they were now starting to regret their decision to return to China, but that they had been told that their jobs were on the line if they did not come back.
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