Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
coronavirus inspirelatest news & developments
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has sought to debunk claims made against it by former Gauteng health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku, calling his words misleading. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku’s first rule: Don’t panic

As Gauteng braces for its Covid-19 peak, the province’s MEC for health, Bandile Masuku, is putting his training to the test as he leads efforts to tackle the impending public…

The vaccine being used in the South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial, led by Wits Professor Shabir Madhi, is called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. It is made from a virus called ChAdOx1, which has been engineered to express the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. (Image via Wits University)
Video

Q&A: 9 things to know about Africa’s first Covid-19 vaccine trial

In about a year we’re likely to know if a candidate vaccine we’re beginning to test this week is effective against a virus that has devastated our country

George Juries. (Paul Botes/M&G)

The man who built a blockade to save his village from Covid

Cities lead the spike in new Covid-19 cases. But in the Western Cape village of Genadendal, where people trace their roots back to the Khoi and freed slaves, one man was worried…

Abdullahi Mire hosts a radio show for the residents of Dadaab.

Meet the ‘Corona Guy’ fighting Covid-19 disinformation in Kenya’s refugee camp

One radio presenter is using the airwaves to bring vital facts about the virus to Dadaab’s 217 000 residents

Parents have long been told that reading to their child is an essential facet of good parenting. (John McCann/M&G)

Family literacy: The glue that binds us

The lockdown is an ideal time to reintroduce storytelling at home and in the process promote a love of reading

The #FeesMustFall protests demonstrated the burden of higher education in South Africa, a concept institutions contend with annually.

Listen to the voice of Generation C — they have answers for Africa’s future

Many young people already know how to deal with the problems the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought — they have been living with them all along

A teacher at the Horizon Sign Language Training Centre in Nakuru, Martin Ndung’u took it upon himself to spread the word.

How coronavirus is affecting Kenya’s hearing impaired citizens

A deaf man in Kenya spread the message of Covid-19 when he realised a million hearing impaired people were left out of the conversation

Although grateful for the recognition, Nsibirwa Semu says his real aim is for his actions to go beyond Covid-19 and inspire people to remember that any act of goodwill, no matter how small, can help to make things better.

The Ugandan good Samaritan sanitising hospitals and police stations

Compelled to make a difference during the Covid-19 pandemic, an IT consultant is now helping to keep essential services workers healthy

Early learning difficulties lead to school dropout, poor matric results, repeated school years and a less effective system for preparing young people for the world

What we are learning about distance learning

Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg has learned some important lessons about teaching during the Covid-19 lockdown

Battle-worn and weary: Arthur Scoble shares some bread with a seagull and a few outside his ‘home’ – an ageing Datsun Colt that has seen better days (David Harrison)

Homeless but ready for Covid-19

A 71-year-old’s car is his home and that is where he says he will reluctantly ride out the pandemic

John Williams. (Derek Davey/M&G)

Slice of life: ‘People have more compassion’

You know, this coronavirus thing, I just feel, if South Africans can stick together, we’ll get through this

Reduced load: Waste reclaimer Steven Leeu of the African Reclaimers Organisation. The lockdown has threatened the reclaimers’. (Paul Botes/M&G) livelihoods. They collect between 80% and 90% of the country’s recyclable waste from people’s bins.

Waste pickers reclaim their power

Reclaimers have not been deemed essential workers amid the Covid-19 lockdown, threatening their already precarious livelihoods. But they will not let each other starve

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. (Oupa Nkosi)

Be at war with the coronavirus, not with each other

If we are to flatten the curve of this virus and ensure that it does not attack as hard as it has done in some European countries, we need to put petty differences aside and be…

The country’s social fibre is under strain and one cannot help but feel that something will have to give. (David Harrison/M&G)

Lockdown heroes feed hungry kids

Feeding schemes inundated with requests to assist during Covid-19 lockdown