R350 grant: Frustrated applicants promised ‘double payment’ in June
By: illovuonline news team
11-06-2020
Image: supplied
SASSA has committed to making two June payments to the R350 grant recipients who haven’t received any financial support since applying in May.
The much-maligned Social Security Department (SASSA) has been inundated with complaints about the execution of their newly introduced R350 grant. The ‘Relief of Distress’ payment was meant to help millions of South Africans cope with the devastating impact of Coronavirus. Instead, it’s proved to be a comedy of errors.
R350 GRANT: HOW SOME APPLICANTS WILL ‘DOUBLE-UP’ IN JUNE
Only a tiny percentage of qualifying beneficiaries have received their payment from the department, following the opening of the application process in May. With many left high and dry, SASSA need to pull a rabbit out of the hat – and their latest communication will hopefully bring relief to desperate citizens.
The department has confirmed that outstanding payments for May will be made in June, alongside the R350 grant that was scheduled to be deposited this month. In effect, SASSA has vowed to make two payments of R350 for those who have so far missed out, making June a bumper month for some recipients – even though it is merely the payment of monies that have been owed to these applicants for weeks.
WHEN WILL SASSA GRANT RECIPIENTS BE PAID?
This is only a one-off measure to help clear the backlog of outstanding payments. Furthermore, those who have successfully received their first payment of the R350 grant will only get one other installment this month. SASSA also confirmed that there is still no ‘fixed date’ for the monthly payments:
“SASSA assures all qualifying applicants who applied last month, successfully verified and approved, that they will receive their payments for May. Those who haven’t yet been paid in May will receive payment in June, and still get their June payment again if they still qualify. There is no fixed date for the R350 grant.”
“There is a high volume of applications, however, SASSA will respond to all everyone. We issue our sincerest apologies for the delay. The turnaround time for payment to reflect once bank details have been successfully verified should be about seven working days. But due to high application volumes, it may take slightly longer.”
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News put South Africa first
Covid-19 opens the door for government to rebuild public participation in mining
By: illovuonline news team
11-06-2020
Image: Supplied
The government must reshape the policy around public participation, not only in response to the pandemic but with a long-term view of safeguarding the rights of those most affected, says the writer.
With dire warnings that Africa is in the ‘mid-morning’ of impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation in mining communities could lead to a perfect storm scenario – rapid, large-scale infection with ineffective responses. Consultation by government and mining companies with mine-affected communities is critical in weathering the storm.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced citizens and observers alike to critically analyse governance processes and unpack the levers of power on a national, regional and international level. Many observers worry that the South African extractive sector’s national commitments to improved governance will diminish in response to – and recovery from – the global health and economic crisis, largely because the commitments were never that strong.
There are concerns about heavy-handed government responses and the erosion of civic space, which would lead to reduced accountability in the sector. There are also fears of an increased risk of corruption, as oversight institutions weaken and shady deals loom. Additionally, there are fears about diminishing transparency, with the possibility of reduced commitment to openness as other priorities take precedence during this pandemic.
Civil society organisations (CSOs) working in the mining sector have sought to challenge systemic corruption and human rights violations as experienced by mine-affected communities. Government and industry are all too familiar with communities’ pleas for social justice and a better deal.
In this call for greater accountability, the judiciary has provided a different tone and allowed redress for mine-affected communities to find some expression. This tone, even in such uncertain times, is the only accountability mechanism available to ensure the rights of mine-affected communities.
Courts lend weight to communities’ pleas
The judiciary displayed its impact earlier last month by handing down judgment on the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union v Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy. The labour court ordered that government is obliged to have “meaningful engagement” with affected communities before publishing a new notice setting out how mines must protect workers.
This judgment came after civil society organisations challenged the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy regulations regarding health and safety guidelines for operating mines and mineworkers during Covid-19. CSOs stated that the reopening of mines during the pandemic has profound implications for not only the country, but especially for mineworkers and mining-affected communities – therefore all stakeholders must be consulted.
The court, even in these exceptional circumstances, affirmed and emphasised the right of mine-affected communities to consultation. The Labour Court judgment echoes that of the landmark Maledu and Others v Itereleng Bakgatla Mineral Resources (Pty) Limited and Another 2019 (2) SA 1 (CC) and the popularly known Xolobeni judgment which confirms the right to both engagement and consent for mine-affected communities.
Since President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the steady reopening of mines and resumption of operations, the rate of infection in mines has increased, while Covid-19 hotspots have developed in mining communities. By the end of May, the Minerals Council announced over 320 recorded cases of the coronavirus in operating mines ahead of the easing of restrictions and movement to Level 3. Impala Platinum Marula mine in Limpopo, Sibanye-Stillwater operations in Free State, and Gauteng’s AngloGold Ashanti Mponeng mine have all reported concerning numbers of positive cases.
With the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention stating that the African continent is currently in the mid-morning of impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation in mining communities could lead to a perfect storm scenario – where there is a rapid, large-scale infection with ineffective responses.
The Labour Court judgment, if applied, may significantly mitigate against this doomsday scenario by requiring government engagement with mine-affected communities. Such engagement would centre not only on occupational health, safety and hygiene measures, but also on transparency in localised socioeconomic issues that would ordinarily create an obstacle to managing the virus.
Empty promises, desperate communities
The issue of consultation in this space has always been vexing and inadequate, with government falling short of fulfilling our democratic promise. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said at the Mining Indaba 2020 that mining companies “must take seriously the communities on whose land they mine”. We have seen major mining companies such as Anglo American echo the same sentiments during this pandemic – CEO Mark Cutifani, writing for Business Day’s “Business Beyond Covid” series, stated that “more than before, miners must be partners with host communities”. Cutifani went on to say that “mines and host communities are deeply connected and operate together as an ecosystem and both must be healthy in order to prosper”.
However, these assertions by the minister and bold statements by Cutifani are of little value if mine-affected communities are forced to rely on court processes for enforcement of their constitutional rights. The sheer power imbalance between industry on the one hand and labour and communities on the other means that the need to resort to the courts to exercise basic rights is a travesty of justice.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has consistently displayed its resistance to entrench transparency and accountability mechanisms between the industry and community relationship dynamic – and never as pronounced as in the community engagement space where there is a tumultuous history of significant undercutting of the participation rights of communities.
Looking beyond Covid-19
The reality is that consultation by its very nature is a process and requires those administering the levers of power to create a conducive environment for engagement. One way to achieve this is through transparency and ensuring that proper governance and accountability measures are in place. Societies cannot thrive when our most vulnerable groups are exploited. Embedded in the management and recovery of the Covid-19 upheaval must be government’s focus on ensuring the mitigation, rather than amplification, of existing injustices and inequalities.
The Labour Court judgment can and should be a resurgent point regarding consultation between industry, communities and government. Perhaps this pandemic provides an opportunity for government to build from the errors that have categorised the South African mining sector and focus on improving responsiveness to the inadequacies in public participation.
The government must reshape the policy around public participation, not only in response to the pandemic but with a long-term view of safeguarding the rights of those most affected. DM
Mashudu Masutha is legal researcher at Corruption Watch.
Tags: Amcu, Covid-19, Gwede Mantashe, Labour Court, Mark Cutifani, Mining, Xolobeni
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News put South Africa first
Talking about pandemics – what is ‘unprecedented’?
By: illovuonline news team
10-06-2020
Image: supplied
In many ways, TB overlaps Covid-19. The symptoms are similar, both diseases affect the lungs and infection by both can be prevented in similar ways.
Like many South African doctors of a certain age, I have had the experience of a personal and professional involvement in pandemics. After consulting a variety of sources, including family and friends, this is a reflection on how I have integrated my understanding of the TB, HIV and Covid-19 pandemics.
My longest relationship is with TB. That started up close and personal when I was treated for TB as a child. Childhood illnesses can profoundly influence one’s future development. I went on to learn about TB at medical school and have treated TB patients from the time I graduated in 1983.
We did not learn about HIV at medical school as it was a new and obscure disease at the time. My HIV work started as a rural doctor from the late 1980s, and culminated in managing a PEPFAR-funded HIV treatment programme at McCord Hospital in Durban, which enrolled 10,000 people on antiretroviral therapy in the first decade of the new millennium.
My most recent relationship is with Covid-19, which began in mid-March 2020 when I joined the Western Cape Covid-19 Outbreak tracing team as a volunteer.
Comparisons are inevitable and a number of doctor-scientist-advocates in South Africa have written about Covid-19 using HIV/TB as a reference point, most recentlyEric Goemaere of Doctors without Borders.
So, what is my concern regarding Covid-19?
On the eve of the lockdown, I voiced a concern that the South African government might be overreacting to Covid-19, to “Anna”, an American infectious diseases specialist. “Janet,” she said patiently, “This is a very serious situation. At least the South African government is listening to the advice of scientists, unlike ….” and then went on to say: “Seriously, it might result in the end of civilisation as we know it”. Over the last 12 weeks I have often thought back on this conversation. At the time, I was unsure, but as events have unfolded and I have learned more, I now have more insight.
The South African government’s overreaction, overinvolvement and overfunctioning with regard to Covid-19, relative to many other health, societal and economic issues (all of which are, arguably, equally or more important and urgent), has been striking. It is in stark contrast with past responses to TB and HIV.
The longstanding TB epidemic, which started to escalate at the turn of the 20th century, became entwined and twinned with HIV in the 1990s, when TB emerged as the most common opportunistic infection. HIV took a terrible, terrible toll on South Africa, and the government not only failed to provide leadership, but Thabo Mbeki’s deliberate dereliction of duty and refusal to allow antiretroviral treatment to be provided, is etched into the memories of HIV activists, health care workers, scientists and the millions of South Africans who lost family members at a young age. For many years the response of the government to the HIV pandemic was characterised by underreaction, underfunctioning and even flat-out denial by the president: “I don’t know anyone with HIV,” Mbeki infamouslysaid in 2003.
By contrast, in this Covid-19 season we have had regular cosy evening chats by an increasingly exhausted looking Cyril Ramaphosa, who speaks to the whole nation in his earnest and avuncular style. “My fellow South Africans” he often starts, trying really hard to reach out to all the people of this diverse country.
It is the one illness that no one living in South Africa could possibly be unaware of. Knowledge may be patchy, incomplete and incorrect, but there is surely no other disease that has ever become so talked about, so quickly and by so many people. It is unlikely that there is anyone whose life has not been affected, and in most cases, turned upside down. Social media, take a bow – for both providing information, as well as big dollops of misinformation and false news. Fear and confusion are inevitable in a situation where much is unknown, and it is unfolding far too fast.
Fear-related emotions have been stoked by media and governments all over the world, mainly to get people to take Covid-19 and lockdown regulations seriously. What is it about this particular pandemic, which some have called “the panic pandemic”?
So, what’s going on with Covid-19?
Yes, Covid-19 is a novel virus, but it causes a respiratory tract infection with low mortality, not an “Ebola-like” haemorrhagic fever with high mortality. This crucial difference should have significant implications for our perspective and response to it.
In my work with the Western Cape Covid-19 Outbreak tracing team, we phoned thousands of people who had tested positive in both the public and private sectors. People were asked about their travel history, current symptoms, comorbidities, what work they did, who they lived with and who their recent contacts were. The majority of people infected were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. Those who were unwell generally recovered soon and completely. It was a small percentage who were more ill, took longer to recover or required hospitalisation and a very small fraction of those infected who died. These findings corroborated the international experience – the majority (estimated 50-80%) of those infected are asymptomatic, or have a moderate, self-limiting illness (estimated 25%). The 5% who develop severe Covid-19 infection, with the risk of dying, are usually older than 65 years or have significant underlying comorbidities (such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity or are immuno compromised). Children and younger people generally do not develop severe infection.
The problem is the infectivity of Covid-19: how many people will get it? The severity of the pandemic will depend on how many people will be severely affected and need hospital care, and the timing of this. Answering these questions is the territory of epidemiologists and actuaries. There are several of these providing forecasts based on their modelling in South Africa. As Marcus Low & Nathan Geffen note:
“Some models are useful. If modellers carefully explain their assumptions and present multiple scenarios, we can get a better understanding of the epidemic’s possible trajectories, or the potential of different interventions to reduce the number of infections. But models, especially because they are surrounded by fancy equations, can give a false sense of certainty. No one truly knows how the epidemic will play out. We humans, in contrast to any other species, have an insatiable desire to know the future. But we can’t. We can only make educated guesses based on the limited information at our disposal, and when it comes to Covid-19 that information is still very limited indeed. Some common uncertainties that stand out in the models are the rate of asymptomatic infections, how infectious Covid-19 is, how effective various interventions are, and the death rate.”
So, there is a lot we don’t know and won’t know till afterwards, when we have more evidence.
So, what drives the Covid-19 panic?
Is it the fact that Covid-19 originated in China (fuelling anti-Asian prejudice) and very quickly spread to other parts of the world, like a real-life stepwise enactment of the 2011 movie Contagion? It was like a “chickens coming home to roost” challenge to the globalised world we inhabit and which many carelessly fly around, even those with an eco-social conscience.
Or, is it that Covid-19 affects wealthy nations and wealthy people, as well as poorer ones? Finally, we have an illness equaliser between the East and the West, the North and the South. Wealthy nations have a lot more elderly people and people with comorbidities (thanks to affluence and modern medicine), who are more at risk. Vikram Patel, an Indian community health psychiatrist, noted that more than 90% of reported deaths from Covid-19 had been in the world’s richest countries.
People in wealthy nations may have been lulled into believing that they were not susceptible to community-acquired infectious diseases, unlike poor people who live in unhygienic contexts, and those who live in countries viewed as reservoirs of pestilence and the diseases. Was it the primal fear of contagion in parts of the world that have had no recent experience of widespread infectious diseases that set the agenda for the global response to Covid-19? One country after another seemed compelled to emulate some form of lockdown (thanks to the apparent success of this strategy in Wuhan), capitulating like dominoes to the global “peer pressure” response.
The World Health Organisation provided global guidance on how to deal withCovid-19 in the form of policies deemed necessary for the hardest-hit wealthy countries but which quickly became a one-size-fits-all. Only Sweden and South Korea bucked the global trend, with yet-to-be-determined outcomes. Two central pillars of the generalised approach have been the use of widespread lockdowns to enforce physical distancing and the focus on sophisticated tertiary hospital care and technological solutions.
Vikram Patel has questioned the appropriateness of these particular strategies for “less-resourced countries with distinct population structures, vastly different public health needs, immensely fewer healthcare resources, less participatory governance, massive within-country inequities, and fragile economies”. Doctors, scientists and public health experts in South Africa should, from the outset, have also raised these concerns, but as a country we were swept along, inspired by Cyril Ramaphosa finally showing some decisive leadership. We desperately wanted to trust him, and believe that the lockdown was the best public health intervention at that time.
In his compelling article in The Lancet, Patel goes on to raise concern about the WHO-endorsed global response, noting that “these strategies might subvert two core principles of global health: that context matters and that social justice and equity are paramount”. Physical distancing is feasible in more secure and prosperous societies, but in contexts of extremely high levels of informal employment and social vulnerability with respect to income and basic needs, it is incredibly hard and unreasonable to sustain, as reports from Lagos, Nigeria show.
Another example is Peru, which was one of the first nations in Latin America to implement Covid-19 preventative measures, with a strict lockdown, curfews and border closings. By May, Peru had the second-highest Covid-19 cases and deaths in South America, after Brazil. In answering the question “So how did it become a Covid-19 hotspot?” Dr Huerta, a Peruvian doctor, gave as a reason the deep inequality in Peru.
“What I have learned is that this virus lays bare the socio-economic conditions of a place,” he said, noting that Peru’s poor have no choice but to venture outside their homes for work and food. “You’re supposed to avoid human contact in a society where one can’t stay at home.”
Dr Herman Reuter (who helped establish the early MSF HIV treatment sites in South Africa) commented to me that Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Director-General of the WHO and first African to head it)should have known that in Africa we would need a different approach to that of wealthy developed countries.
Regarding that conversation with “Anna”: I now realise that the difference between our two countries is that in the US this virus is very bad news, but by African standards it is yet another health challenge among HIV, TB, poverty, violence and the other “usual suspects”. If it is the end of civilisation, this is not due to the virus but to our response.
So, what are the similarities and differences between TB, HIV and Covid-19?
TB it is the oldest disease of the three. While the mycobacterium which causes TB was first isolated in 1882 by Robert Koch, it is one of the oldest known diseases in history, with evidence of tuberculous infection found in Egyptian mummies from 3000-2400 BC.
TB is currently the most serious global infectious disease – it occurs in every country and is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide. Every year 10 million people become ill with TB, and despite it being a preventable and treatable disease,1.5 million people die from TB every year.
HIV and Covid-19 are more recent illnesses. Both are caused by a virus, and both are zoonotic infections – they started in animals and crossed the species barrier to infect humans and were then transmitted between people. (Note: TB also infects cows and can be transmitted through unpasteurised milk.)
The modes of transmission are different. Covid-19 and TB are both spread by breathing, coughing and sneezing tiny airborne infective “droplets” so anyone can “catch” the disease, and everyone is potentially at risk, unlike with HIV, where people can protect themselves by “being careful” in specific ways. HIV transmission does not involve general social intercourse, but mostly sexual intercourse (apart from mother-to-child transmission, sharing needles, needlestick injuries and blood transfusions). The link of HIV with sex created stigma, given that sex has so often been associated with shame and secrecy. The risk of transmission with HIV could thus conveniently be compartmentalised, resulting in less general societal anxiety about contagion.
All three diseases have been given the pandemic label. A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread worldwide. While Ebola was taken extremely seriously by the international health community, it did not meet the criteria of being a pandemic.
With HIV, infants, children, young people, and the economically active are disproportionately infected. TB affects all ages. Covid-19 is the opposite of HIV – children and young people are less susceptible, and older people (and those with comorbidities) are more so. With HIV more women are infected; presently, international evidence indicates that with Covid-19, men are more severely affected.
Significantly, HIV was initially diagnosed in those who were marginalised and already stigmatised by mainstream, affluent societies – it was first diagnosed in the US in gay men, Haitians and then later it became a pandemic affecting mostly poorer people in less developed countries. With Covid-19 (the democratic, equalizing virus), the well-to-do and well-travelled were among the first to be infected.
Covid-19, TB and HIV have all been labelled as “deadly” despite the fact that the case fatality rates differ significantly.With HIV, the mortality exceeds 90%, over time, if untreated. With the exception of “elite controllers” for most, the time from HIV infection to death, if untreated, is estimated to be eight to 10 years. Estimates of the Covid-19 case fatality rate range from 0.1% to 3%. If we knew the true denominator, it is likely to be less than 1%. A professor of theoretical epidemiology at Oxford estimated that the case fatality rate is somewhere between 0.1% and 0.01%.
What makes Covid-19 related mortality seem compelling and urgent is that the time from infection to death is counted in days, or a few weeks at most. And many people die dramatically, in ICUs.
The mortality rate from HIV is 50 times greater than from Covid-19; even on treatment it is still 5 to 10 times greater. In South Africa close to 200,000 people of all ages die every year from TB and HIV. However, the timeline from being infected with TB or HIV to death is less dramatic, and generally takes years. Many people die at home in poor communities, and not in ICU. As Hermann Reuter remarked to me, “Usually ICU doctors have the most esteem and PHC doctors, nurses and community health workers (who bear the brunt of the HIV care) the least.”
So, how has the international world responded to these pandemics? With HIV, there was first a long global advocacy campaign, which was a bottom-up response. With Covid-19 we witnessed a very rapid top-down response. Ultimately, there was a significant global response to HIV in the form of PEPFAR funding and the Global Fund to make lifesaving ART available in low-and-middle-income countries, but it was a case of too little, too late. Since the beginning of the pandemic, globally 75 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 32 million people have died of it. It isestimated that 770,000 people died of HIV related illnesses in the world in 2018.
By contrast, in an attempt to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, global governments, guided by the WHO, have been willing to throw their economies “under the bus” through implementing stringent lockdown regulations. The result has created havoc for global economies, as well as jeopardising other health-related conditions. Even in countries which do not have the challenge of large numbers of people with TB and HIV, there has been a dramatic effect on other health conditions. As Ben Locwin writes:
“We are inexorably past the point where the increase in morbidity and mortality on the population of existing (non Covid-19) patients is GREATER than that likely to be experienced from Covid-19 itself. We have swung the pendulum with such force in the pandemic direction, that those cancer patients awaiting chemotherapy are being told to wait longer, rheumatoid arthritis patients cannot get their treatments, lupus patients cannot get their immunomodulators (like chloroquine). This approach is having a tremendous effect on patient diseases […] because of all the shutdowns.”
As others have also noted, the initial lockdown was a rational and a useful response, which gave South Africa time to prepare the health system to deal with an anticipated surge. Now that South Africa has entered the phase of significant community spread, the pandemic response needs to be weighed up against the harms of many other diseases being neglected.
Dr David Harrison (who started the Health Systems Trust, was CEO of LoveLife and is now CEO of the DG Murray Trust) in considering the response of the South African government to HIV in the 1990s, noted, “The response of government and the corporate sector to the HIV pandemic was, with few exceptions, mostly indifferent.” In 2000, LoveLife published a booklet titled The Impending Catastrophe, warning of a massive social and economic impact, yet to be felt.
These projections were wrong, Harrison noted in retrospect. The South African government and corporate sector realised that the HIV pandemic would mostly affect less-wealthy people in informal settlements. Apart from higher healthcare and social security costs, life in South Africa went on much as usual, except for the 2.8 million people who died because of HIV between 1997 and 2010. At its peak in 2005, close to 700 people died from AIDS in South Africa every single day (this numberis lower than model estimates from Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Global Burden of Disease Study).
Was there widespread outrage about the shockingly high HIV/TB mortality rates? Were any sweeping socio-economic or societal changes to address the HIV/TB pandemic discussed by leaders in South Africa? No. Life went on as normal for many in South Africa – only those infected and affected and healthcare workers and activists were outraged.
I agree with David Harrison’s sentiment: “I feel rising anger every time the president or a prominent politician speaks of Covid-19 as ‘unprecedented’ – for poorer communities, the Covid-19 epidemic is not a bolt from the blue, rather it is part of another wave of misery that rolls in on top of others, leaving the whole of society a bit more fragile than it was before”.
Adding to the misery was the way in which the lockdown was implemented. In Daily Maverick on 1 June 2020, Ferial Haffajee reported that 11 South Africa.
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News put South Africa first
New laws proposed for South Africa – including changes to marriages
By: illovuonline news team
10-06-2020
Image: supplied
The National Assembly has passed a number of new bills dealing with a range of issues including marriage, criminal offences and social justice issues.
The bills were passed on Tuesday (9 June) and will now go to the National Council of Provinces for consideration, after which they will undergo the full consideration process.
Below the bills are outlined in more detail.
Marriage
The Recognition of Customary Marriages Amendment Bill aims to address a Constitutional Court ruling that section 7(1) of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act of 1998 was inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid.
This was because the section limited the right to human dignity and discriminated unfairly on the basis of gender and race, ethnic or social origin against women who entered into polygamous customary marriages before the 1998 Recognition of Customary Marriages Act.
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services noted that the South African Law Reform Commission, with the Department of Home Affairs, is also reviewing the South African marriage regime.
The Department of Home Affairs has said that it will submit this separate policy will be gazetted for public consultation during the 2020/21 financial year, after which it will be submitted to cabinet for approval by 31 March 2021.
The department explained that the legislation which currently regulates marriages in South Africa has been developed without an overarching policy that is based on constitutional values (e.g. equality, nondiscrimination and human dignity) and an understanding of modern social dynamics.
This has led to the recognition of different marriage rituals without any harmonisation, it said.
“Despite all the changes that have been made in the marriage legislation post-1994, there are still serious gaps in the current legislation.
“For instance, the current legislation does not regulate some religious marriages such as the Hindu, Muslim and other customary marriages that are practised in some African or royal families.
“Given the diversity of the South Africa population it is virtually impossible to pass legislation governing every single religious or cultural marriage practice.
“It is against this background that the DHA is embarking in the process of developing a marriage policy that will lay a policy foundation for drafting a new single or omnibus legislation.”
Some of the key changes that will be introduced in the new policy include:
The new Marriage Act will enable South Africans of different sexual orientation, religious and cultural persuasions to conclude legal marriages;
The introduction of strict rules around the age of marriage (including the alignment of age of majority in the marriage legislation to the Children’s Act);
It will align the marriage, matrimonial property and divorce legislation to address matrimonial property and intestate succession matters in the event of the marriage dissolution;
It will allow for equitable treatment and respect for religious and customary beliefs in line with Section 15 of the Constitution.
It will deal with the solemnisation and registration of marriages that involve foreign nationals;
It will deal with the solemnisation and registration of customary marriages that involve non-citizens especially cross-border communities or citizens of our neighbouring countries.
Crime
The Prescription in Civil and Criminal Matters (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill aims to amend the Prescription Act of 1969 to extend the list of sexual offences in respect of which prescription does not start to run under certain circumstances.
The Bill also amends the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, to extend the list of sexual offences for which prosecution may be started after 20 years has lapsed since the date of the alleged commission of the sexual offence.
This effectively means that criminals can still be brought to trial for crimes that they committed 20 years ago or more.
Grants
The Social Assistance Amendment Bill aims to amend the Social Assistance Act to make it easier for a number of South Africans to receive grants.
Some of the key changes include:
It will provide for additional payments linked to social grants;
It will provide for payment of benefits to a child-headed household;
It will provide for social relief of distress in the event of a disaster.
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News put South Africa first
By: illovuonline news team
10-06-2020
Image: Supplied
The health department has come under fire from unions for not providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
One of the Eastern Cape’s most important rural hospitals has become a ghost facility after doctors and nurses walked out on Monday, leaving patients to fend for themselves or rely on managers for treatment.
The decision by most of the health workers at Tafalofefe Hospital in Centane to abandon their stations brought home the reality of an ongoing health crisis fuelled by a stand-off between the health department, and health workers, represented by unions.
It has come at a time when the province can least afford it, with the Eastern Cape second only to the Western Cape in terms of Covid-19 fatalities.
The beleaguered health department has come under fire from unions for not providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), while a culture of fear is rife among medical personnel who refuse to put their own lives at risk.
On Monday and Tuesday, patients at Tafalofefe Hospital watched helplessly as health workers went home or embarked on protest action outside the building.
Three staff members, including a doctor, have tested positive for Covid-19.
One of them, according to the health department, was rushed to an East London private hospital in a critical condition.
A hospital clerk died last week, though the department said the death was not Covid-19-related.
There are more than 100 people working at the hospital.
They are demanding proper protective gear, more testing kits, the hospital to be disinfected, the decontamination of work stations, and managers to refrain from instructing staff who test Covid-positive not to disclose their status to colleagues.
DispatchLIVE visited the hospital on Monday afternoon. Only a few workers were on site, as most had gone home.
A nurse, who cannot be identified as she is not allowed to speak to the media, said the situation had become unbearable.
“Never in our lives did we think we would close a hospital and leave patients to fend for themselves.
“We are tired of this failing health system that is putting our lives at risk. We cannot lose a colleague.
“But when we raise concerns we are told to shut up,” the woman said.
Two patients, who met with illovuonline news team next to the main gate of the hospital, confirmed that they were not being attended to.
One patient said nurses told them they should leave the hospital.
“After a meeting the nurses decided to leave the hospital. We thought at least we will have a few to take care of us, but that was not the case,” the patient, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.
“We hope the management can handle this.”
Two security guards from Phiko Security told illovuonline news health workers left the hospital in the hands of management.
“The patients, as you can see, are struggling. Some are carrying their drips,” one guard said.
By Tuesday afternoon, staff still had not returned to work. Instead, they protested outside the hospital.
“The managers [of the hospital] are not telling the truth. If we are to work with them, they must tell us the challenges they are facing, otherwise we are all going to die here,” one of the protesting workers said.
“They are not even telling us how many other positive cases there are among us. We need to know
“All the Covid-19 cases in these hospitals have human faces. If we cannot be supported or support those who are infected, we will get sick and possibly die alone.”
Judy Ngoloyi, spokesperson for Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba, refuted the health workers’ claims that the hospital clerk had died after contracting Covid-19.
“That’s not true to say the deceased employee died of Covid-19 because the results came back negative.
“She died a sudden death. But we can confirm that there are three other workers, including a doctor, who have tested positive. One had to be rushed to the private hospital,” Ngoloyi said.
Ngoloyi said the department was meeting with officials and board members to deal with issues at the hospital.
“There are those who are currently outside the hospital protesting but we do have a few who are assisting inside the hospital.
“It is not a total shutdown of the hospital. Their challenges are being dealt with,” she said.
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82 more Covid-19 deaths as SA cases climb to 52,991 with total number of deaths 1,162
By: illovuonline news team
10-06-2020
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Health minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Tuesday that 82 additional deaths had been recorded in the past 24 hours.
Eighty-two additional Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday – 61 of which were in the Western Cape.
The other deaths were in the Eastern Cape (11) and Gauteng (10).
This means there have now been 1,162 confirmed fatalities from the respiratory illness.
The ministry also announced that there were 52,991 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across SA, which is an increase of 2,112 in the past 24 hours.
There were also a total of 29,006 recoveries.
Dr Zweli Mkhize
✔@DrZweliMkhize
As of today, the cumulative number of confirmed #COVID19 cases is 52 991, the total number of deaths is 1162 and the recoveries to date are 29 006.
We express our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and appreciate the health workers who treated these patients.
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News put South Africa first
By: illovuonline news team
09-06-2020
Image: supplied
Covid-19 cases in SA rose to 50,879 on Monday, with deaths reaching 1,080.
South Africa on Monday night reached a grim milestone as the country battles to contain the coronavirus: more than 1,000 people have now died from the illness the virus causes.
The milestone was reached 73 days after the first Covid-19 related death – that of 48-year-old Madeleine van Wyk from the Western Cape – was recorded on March 27.
In figures released on Monday, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said 82 additional deaths had been recorded since the statistics were released on Sunday night. This means that there are now 1,080 confirmed deaths from the illness in SA.
Of the 82 newly recorded deaths, 55 were from the Western Cape, 26 from the Eastern Cape and one from KZN.
Mkhize also revealed that the number of confirmed cases in SA had climbed from 48,285 on Sunday to 50,879 on Monday, an increase of 2,594 cases.
The breakdown of cases was provided on Monday as:
The Western Cape continued to be the epicentre of the coronavirus in SA, according to statistics released on Monday night.
The most number of deaths were recorded in the Western Cape, followed by the Eastern Cape.
Within a few days of the first death on March 27, fatalities were confirmed across the country. By March 31, five deaths had been recorded across SA, including in KZN, Gauteng and the Free State.
The Free State’s cases had largely stemmed from from a church conference in Bloemfontein, which was also attended by international visitors who later tested positive for Covid-19.
Fatalities were then confirmed in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo on April 16.
On May 11, the North West reported its first fatality and, a week later, on May 19, after a relatively low infection rate, the Northern Cape reported its first death.
Mpumalanga only reported its first coronavirus death on Sunday, meaning that every single province had at least one death.
According to statistics provided by the health department, the youngest person to have died from the virus was a two-day-old infant, who was born to a Covid-19 positive mother in May. The infant was born prematurely and also had trouble with its lungs.
While the 1,000-death mark is jarring, figures posted on international reference website Worldometer show that SA has recorded fewer fatalities than 30 other countries.
Of 407,437 deaths globally (as recorded at 8pm on Monday), 112,645 have been in the USA, 40,597 in the UK and 37,312 in Brazil.
In Africa, the most deaths – 1,237 – have been recorded in Egypt, followed by SA. In Egypt’s case, the fatalities were from just over 34,000 cases.
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