Pietermaritzburg’s lockdown is a mix of good and bad
Covid-19 cases in the uMgungundlovu district have not spiralled out of control despite earlier alarm over the number of lockdown violations. But poverty and hunger lurk everywhere.
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Covid-19 Roundup | Grants and evictions
Battling to access grants and funding, high TB and HIV infections, illegal evictions and a shortage of protective equipment are among the daily struggles now facing the impoverished.
Corporate bullying in fight over Xolobeni mining
Activists argue that the Australian company suing them is using the courts to silence criticism and so abusing the legal system. The law should change to stop these types of suits.
SA to trial controversial drug chloroquine
Researchers scrambling to find a treatment for Covid-19 are repurposing existing drugs, including the controversial medications hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.
Migrants face mental health crisis amid lockdown
The ongoing lockdown in South Africa has confined vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers to tiny rooms in which past traumas and hunger haunt them.
The fallout from SA’s Covid-19 lockdown
As South Africa eases out of a stringent initial lockdown, critics suggest that economic devastation and loss of life from neglected diseases will far outstrip the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.
Call to release Eritrean political prisoners
Families and rights groups urge the Eritrean regime to release political detainees held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 Roundup | Courts and crime
As South Africa braces itself for winter and lockdown at level three, courts see an influx of urgent applications, school return dates are fiercely debated and police brutality remains under scrutiny.
Activist Ayanda Kota fears for his life
The leader of the Unemployed People’s Movement is in hiding after being warned about a plan to assassinate him. It is no idle threat in a province where political murders are rife.
Back to the drawing board for lockdown rules
In declaring some of the lockdown regulations unconstitutional and irrational, the court has ruled that the government needs to follow a more human-centred approach.
Protecting healthcare workers ‘not rocket science’
An investigation into the first major outbreak of Covid-19, at a Durban hospital, shows that staff members spread the virus, raising concerns about the safety of healthcare workers as infections rise.
All workers can now benefit from UIF relief scheme
Distressed workers not registered with the UIF can now apply for special Covid-19 relief benefits, and they no longer have to depend on their employers to do it on their behalf.
Covid-19 Roundup | Level three brings new challenges
Lockdown regulations are easing across South Africa, heralding a rise in the movement of people as schools and businesses reopen and the labour force gets back to work. Infections are expected to spike.
Pharmacists, denied frontline status, get PPE late
Pharmacists at one of the major public hospitals in Gauteng say they only received sufficient protective gear after several of their colleagues contracted Covid-19.
Covid-19 deepens the crisis in war-torn Yemen
The coronavirus outbreak has left millions at the mercy of the country’s warring factions, which will not stop fighting, despite an escalating humanitarian emergency.
What happened to the Covid-19 special grant?
The newly established grant intended to bring informal economy workers into South Africa’s social security net during the lockdown has had a disastrous start.
Where must we get help, ask KwaZulu-Natal residents
Impoverished residents in the province, especially those in rural areas, say they are being neglected, ignored and exploited by the very people who are supposed to protect them.
Deadlier than coronavirus: Bolsonarovirus
As Brazil’s Covid-19 cases rocket and mass graves are dug daily, beleaguered citizens have to deal with a president who refuses to acknowledge the severity of the crisis.
Eastern Cape schools not ready to reopen
It is unclear how schools in the province – 1 598 of which use pit latrines – will meet basic sanitation standards. Some parents want to keep their children at home, but face bureaucracy.
Covid-19 Roundup | Back to school
As schools get ready to reopen, models suggest the country will still not have enough ICU beds at the virus peak. In the meantime, court battles rage while unions fight to keep miners safe.
How Covid-19 has affected vulnerable people in Italy
Italy, once the epicentre of Covid-19 in Europe, has seen many of its residents affected by the pandemic. But migrants, homeless and elderly people, and women in abusive relationships have been hardest hit.