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President Cyril Ramaphosa . (GCIS)
Video

Watch it again: Ramaphosa addresses the nation

The president is expected to provide an update on the government’s strategies to manage the coronavirus pandemic

The personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement scandal has cast a shadow over small businesses in the textile sector that ventured into manufacturing masks to survive the adverse effects of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Who’s making money from Covid-19?

Our Covid-19 Tender Tracker is monitoring payments awarded for PPE, and we need your help to maintain it.

The department of basic education says it is willing to discuss language policies in the controversial Basic Education Law Amendment (Bela) Act, in the wake of legal action taken by trade union Solidarity.

Teachers trying to catch up, ‘ticking boxes’, overloading learners

Teachers who spoke to the Mail & Guardian this week are not confident that any effective teaching and learning will take place during this academic year, even if it is extended

Limits: A police officer confronts a man pleading for the release of a protester detained for breaching lockdown regulations during a demonstration in Snake Park, Soweto, against electricity cuts.  (Marco Longari/AFP)

Vigorous policing of petty crime during the pandemic suggests a Pyrrhic defeat

The ideological aims of the criminal justice system in dysfunctional societies, like South Africa, is to indirectly legitimise the inequitable economic system

Good intentions: eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda (left) and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala (second from left). (Mbuyiselo Ndlovu)

KwaZulu-Natal is emerging as a new Covid-19 epicentre

Large groups attending funerals and people delaying being tested and treated because they fear dying in hospital has contributed to a spike in coronavirus infections in KZN

On the job: Rubbish
collectors at work; PPE
hanging next to tents for
the treatment of potential
Covid-19 patients at the
Tshwane district hospital;
and police on a stop and
search operation.

Civil service edges closer to Covid cliff

Public sector unions say the rampant Covid-19 pandemic will have a devastating effect on how the government is run and services are delivered

With just 531 criminal convictions from the 42 365 complaints, either South Africans are going out of their way to tell a whole bunch of outrageous lies or the state isn’t all that interested in doing something about police brutality.

Police brutality is government policy

For 20 years ministers in charge of the police have been telling them to beat up or kill criminals

President Cyril Ramaphosa . (GCIS)
Video

Watch it again: Ramaphosa on risk-adjusted strategy to manage Covid-19

The president’s address comes after a number of meetings with Cabinet and the National Command Council

Most of Gauteng and Western Cape schools are in Covid-19 hotspots.

Most Gauteng, Western Cape schools in hotspots

Out of more than 25 000 schools in the country, 8 047 were in hotspots and 6 995 of these were public schools. And most of Gauteng’s and the Western Cape’s schools are in hotspots

(Mail & Guardian)

Editorial: Combating Covid-19: ‘It is now in your hands’

Despite the destructive system created by politicians and corporations, we can show the power of community and humanity

Up to one in five people can get long COVID — a condition in which someone keeps on feeling ill for months after their initial symptoms have cleared up. (Paul Botes)

People’s behaviour stoking Gauteng pandemic

The active case count of Gauteng surpasses that of whole countries. Workers at clinics report a ‘concerning’ relaxation of basic health protocols

children playing during lockdown level 3, most schools have closed down due to corona virus infections. Snake Park Soweto – has become a covid hotspot. Allot of people blame the mines in the area for their poor health and rise in infecions. Photo Delwyn Verasamy

Toxic dust from an abandoned mine coupled with Covid-19 is a tinderbox

Covid-19 is not the first health crisis to plague Snake Park. For decades the residents have lived with the mine, which they say blows clouds of dust into their homes

Professor Justin Jonas, the chief technologist at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (Sarao), said the first 1 000 of 20 000 machines will be rolled out on July 16.

Locally built ventilators ready in two weeks as Covid cases rise

The companies making the non-invasive devices, which will create jobs and are cheaper than other types, include car and diving manufacturers

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…

(John McCann)

We can’t expect learners and teachers to function optimally right now

It may well be that we have warm bodies in schools, but to think their minds are highly productive is a reach

The landscape of technology-driven elections is fast mutating. With the current deficits, there is a need for adequate digital skills if Africa is to be recognised for effective handling of elections.

Material change to electoral system remains elusive

Expectations that the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling on independent candidates may give the majority of voters a stronger voice are premature and largely unwarranted

File photo of the Ugu District Municipality building. (Photo by Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

South Coast fight for water heads to court

The Ugu district municipality has increased its water and sanitation tariffs by 8%, but it does not supply residents with water

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

Screen test: The number of tests done is irrelevant if the results aren’t being processed quickly enough and no
one really knows how prepared they are until the wave hits, specialists have said. (Marco Longari/AFP)

SA accelerating towards virus peak without capacity, experts warn

Despite efforts to prepare for the worst, it is ‘very unlikely’ that hospitals will be able to cope with the onslaught of Covid-19 cases

President Cyril Ramaphosa . (GCIS)
Video

Watch it again: Ramaphosa addresses the nation on measures to manage the spread of Covid-19

The President’s address follows a number of meetings of the Cabinet, the National Coronavirus Command Council and the Presidential Coordinating Council