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Gauteng community health worker Sisanda Kulima says that when her daughter asked about the coronavirus, she was surprised her mother was not afraid.

“She said to me: ‘But you are working hard mom.’ And I felt so proud because that made me aware that people can see how much I love this job,” Kulima says, her voice buoyant over the phone.

Kulima works at Finetown Clinic, in the south of Johannesburg. The 35-year-old is one of the province’s 9000 community health workers, who are a vital link between vulnerable communities and South Africa’s ailing healthcare system.

They will be on the front line of efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus in townships across the province — which to date has the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country.

Last week Gauteng premier David Makhura called these workers the “troops on the ground”. The province will arm this “huge army” of workers with information about Covid-19 and “what families and households can do”, he said at a press briefing last Wednesday.

But community health workers like Kulima say this was the first time they had heard of what was expected of them during the outbreak.

They started organising themselves — collecting information, printing pamphlets to distribute to communities and coming up with strategies on how to tackle the virus — well before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s late-night declaration of a national state of disaster on March 15.

On Monday, the Gauteng Community Health Workers’ Forum wrote to Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku demanding protective equipment, permanent jobs and the reinstatement of dismissed workers.

The letter notes: “This is not the first time CHWs [community health workers] have been tasked with serving the working class to prevent the spread of infectious pandemics … CHWs have been on the front line of the struggle against HIV/Aids and .. illnesses such as tuberculosis. Many CHWs lost their lives in the service of their communities.”

“From my side, I am not scared,” says Kulima. She repeats the phrase “I am not scared” two more times before continuing her thought. “I would have been scared a very long time ago.”

“I am worried,” she admits, however. Although she isn’t scared to fight the virus head on, Kulima is nevertheless worried that many

community health workers in Gauteng say they do not have the protective gear they need to guard themselves and others against infection.

“If we can have the protective gear, I don’t see how we won’t be able to trace in households. But for now there is a little fear of going into the households and not knowing if you will contract the coronavirus.”

At the beginning of March, the World Health Organisation warned of a “severe and mounting disruption” to the global supply of personal protective equipment like medical masks.

Shortages are leaving doctors, nurses and other front-line workers “dangerously ill-equipped to care for Covid-19 patients”, the WHO said in a statement calling on industry and governments to act quickly to boost supply.

This week, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union — which represents public healthcare workers — released a statement saying that the necessary protective gear had not “materialised” in their workplaces since March 5, when the first confirmed Covid-19 case was reported in South Africa. “This has caused anxiety and distress amongst workers, especially the critical front-line public services.”

A community health worker based in Ekurhuleni says her clinic has enough gloves and masks. But there are only seven community health workers at that clinic, while others accommodating far more workers do not have enough protective gear to go around, she says.

The Ekurhuleni-based community health worker asked not to be named because she says she has seen the effects of becoming known as an “activist”.

“There are other clinics where there are 50 [community health workers]. They are staying in one room … So they are also clustered in that room and they are supposed to go outside and educate the community about the coronavirus and then come back,” she says.

“What if that person is already sick? Maybe she has the flu and she comes in contact with somebody with coronavirus.”

The Ekurhuleni worker says she and her colleagues were not given training or information about the virus until last weekend. “We just googled the information,” she says.

‘We are on our own’

In Bronkhorstspruit, to the east of Pretoria, Klaas Nakedi says a lot of his work has been around combating fake news about the coronavirus. “We’ve been using social media because a lot of people are using it and there is a lot of fake news. So we are using the platforms to counterattack by spreading researched, valid information on the virus.”

Community health workers spent the past two weeks distributing thousands of pamphlets to people at taxi ranks and in townships.

“There are no resources from the government so we are using the pamphlets to raise awareness within our communities and in so doing minimising the risk of us being infected as well as us infecting the community,” he says.

Nakedi, who has been a community health worker for six years, lives and works in Rethabiseng in Bronkhorstspruit, an area plagued by an ongoing water crisis, with residents complaining that the water is contaminated.

Nakedi is worried about what will happen if the virus takes hold in Rethabiseng.

“Unfortunately, I see, as this is one of the poorest communities, we will be one of those that will be abandoned,” he says. “We have to find our own resources and try to communicate to our people. We are not running away because we are committed public servants … but I think we will be abandoned. We are on our own.”

Nakedi says recognising the inadequate provision of services to poor communities is why he became a health worker in the first place.

“I believe that to see the changes I need to be the change. I am the community,” he says.

“So if I see something that needs to be improved — if I see a gap in the community — I think I should be the first to stand up. I’m the one who knows the crisis beneath the challenges of my community.”

‘I am the community’

Kulima, the community health worker from Finetown, shares this sentiment. “We show love through our work because we never chose it because of money. We chose it because it is a calling,” she says. “And we shall protect the South African people.”

There are 54000 community health workers across the country. These workers are well positioned to understand the healthcare needs of the township and rural communities they serve.

Kulima has lived in Finetown for 25 years. “I grew up here. I am very familiar with this place.”

She says her concern is that many of the people she treats are on medications that suppress their immunity. “Those are the people who are in danger. My worry is if it can get to the point that it gets to our township. At some point, this township will have many people who will die of the coronavirus.”

Like her colleagues, Kulima is undeterred, even in the face of the potentially massive task that lies ahead — and even though the department of health has failed to fulfil its promise to make them permanent.

Recognise us

In November 2018, the minister of health at the time, Aaron Motsoaledi, announced the national department’s plan to “absorb and hire” community health workers. Motsoaledi said the workers, who were earning R3500 a month, would earn R6000 as permanent employees.

But to date these Gauteng workers have not been given permanent contracts.

Recognising the global attrition rates of community health workers, and the role they play in the provision of primary healthcare, the WHO published a set of guidelines for countries to support them.

The WHO guidelines strongly recommended that policymakers ensure that community health workers are remunerated with “a financial package commensurate with the job demands, complexity, number of hours, training and roles that they undertake”.

Kwara Kekana, spokesperson in the office of the health MEC, said training of the community health workers last week.

“The situation is changing rapidly and the department is also adapting and amending its plans as the situation changes.”

The workers will be provided with protective clothing and procurement is continuous, she added.

Kekana said “the discussion with CHWs in Gauteng has been taking place on a continuous basis between the MEC and the advisory committee. We have made a commitment to the committee to update them on every step in the process in Gauteng as we try and resolve some of the issues raised.”

She added: “CHWs are an important part of the health system.”

Kulima says community health workers “will continue to do what is right for the community but the government should also do what is right for us”.

“The problem is now they want to use us, but they don’t want to pay us and they don’t want to recognise us.”

Articel by Mail and Gardian

The government insists there is a plan in place to address overcrowded areas which make social distancing and self-isolation impossible.

This is according to Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

She said the government could not share details of how it planned to “de-densify” some areas as consultations with affected communities have not taken place yet.

We have a plan in relation to how much land we have and how many sites we will be able to put up there. But we still have to relay [this] to communities. We would like to take [our plan] there to see what their response is.”

Sisulu was speaking to News24 on the sidelines of a media briefing held by ministers from the social cluster in Pretoria on Tuesday.

‘Spread of this virus is dire’

The briefing followed an announcement from President Cyril Ramaphosa that he was implementing a national lockdown due to the coronavirus.

South Africa has 554 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

The government has been criticised since the announcement of a national state of disaster last week for not explaining how it would deal with areas such as informal settlements, taxi ranks and train stations which are congested, making it nearly impossible to practice social distancing.

Sisulu told journalists during the briefing there were 29 concerning municipalities and the department was working with multiple departments to move those affected.

“The spread of this virus is dire. By the time it gets to our informal settlements, we have no idea what is going to come out of there. Those are our most vulnerable people and those are our priority.”

She said land had already been identified and the government needed to consult and ensure citizens understood why it was crucial to move people living in densely populated areas.

“We want to go and sit down with them and say this is what we are going to do: Please follow us, trust us, we are doing this in your best interest. But we must consult.”

While Sisulu would not elaborate on what measures the government would take when confronted by communities that refuse to be moved, she said there was recourse through emergency laws, which could be used.

“Eviction is a very harsh description of what we would be doing. We would be saying to them it’s in your best interest to do that,” she added, denying the government would seek to forcefully evict those who refuse to be moved.

Article by News 24

Sweden has become an international outlier in its response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak by keeping schools open and adopting few other restrictions, as the Scandinavian nation embarks on what one health expert called a “huge experiment”.  Since the UK went into lockdown on Monday evening, Sweden is the largest European country with the fewest limits on where people can go and what they can do. Schools for children up to the age of 16 remain open, many people continue to go to work and packed commuter trains and buses were reported this week in the capital, Stockholm. “Clearly, Sweden stands out at the moment,” said Carl Bildt, the former prime minister.

Since the UK went into lockdown on Monday evening, Sweden is the largest European country with the fewest limits on where people can go and what they can do. Schools for children up to the age of 16 remain open, many people continue to go to work and packed commuter trains and buses were reported this week in the capital, Stockholm. “Clearly, Sweden stands out at the moment,” said Carl Bildt, the former prime minister.

Article by Richard Milne for the Financail TImes

Swedish authorities have banned public gatherings of more than 500 people, closed universities and higher education colleges, and advised workers to stay at home if possible. Authorities on Tuesday ordered restaurants and bars only to serve people at tables rather than at the bar.

Local media have been full of stories of thousands of people gathering at Swedish ski resorts, which until Saturday kept their nightlife open. The virus has previously spread easily in mountain resorts in Austria and Italy.

Johan Carlson, head of Sweden’s public health agency, last week defended Sweden’s approach, saying the country “cannot take draconian measures that have a limited impact on the epidemic but knock out the functions of society”.

But he conceded that the 90,000 figure for the number of people who die annually in Sweden would “increase significantly” if its healthcare system became overburdened.

There have been just over 2,000 reported Covid-19 cases in Sweden and 33 deaths. That compares with more than 6,000 deaths in Italy, Europe’s worst-affected country.

“The future still looks manageable,” said Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist who has become one of the public faces of the outbreak. He argued that schools needed to stay open to provide childcare for health workers, noting that young people appeared to have much lower infection rates.

But a significant number of Swedish health experts disagree. Mr Tegnell has faced a barrage of criticism after details of the country’s antivirus tactics leaked to Swedish TV at the weekend.

Joacim Rocklov, an epidemiologist at Umea University, said the Swedish authorities were taking huge risks with public health when so much remained unknown about coronavirus.  “I do not see why Sweden would be so different from other countries.It is a huge experiment,” he told the Financial Times. “We have no idea — it could work out. But it could also go crazily in the wrong direction.”

Swedish authorities have said they are not explicitly pursuing a strategy of “herd immunity”, where a large segment of the population contracts the virus in order for society to build up immunity. The UK’s chief scientific adviser had previously suggested that Britain adopt such an approach before the government backtracked.

Sweden is instead seeking to slow the spread of infections and ensure that its health system does not become overwhelmed. Mr Bildt said the situation on the streets of Stockholm had changed “dramatically” in recent weeks despite the absence of legal restrictions, with far fewer people going outside.

But Mr Rocklov said it was not yet known how long immunity to Covid-19 would last. “There is a big risk that Sweden would have to go into quarantine when the health system goes into crisis,” he added. Sweden’s relaxed approach contrasts with its Nordic neighbours.

Denmark, Norway and Finland have closed schools, sealed their borders and imposed other restrictions. Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s centre-left prime minister, has called on everyone to play a part in stopping the virus from spreading by, for instance, not visiting elderly relatives and working from home. He used a televised address to the nation on Sunday to warn that more restrictive measures might come as he conceded the next few months would be difficult.

“There are a few crucial moments in life when you have to make sacrifices, not only for your own sake but also in order to take responsibility for the people around you, for your fellow human beings, and for our country. That moment is now. That day is here. And that duty belongs to everyone,” he said. Sweden’s strategy has also been criticised for a different reason, with some arguing that even the lighter measures could cause huge damage to the economy. Kerstin Hessius, a prominent fund manager, is one of those arguing that the country may be swapping one disaster for an even worse one.

Her views provoked a riposte from Leif Ostling, former chief executive of truckmaker Scania, who accused her of living in a “financial bubble”. He urged Swedes not to become cynical and to hold to their “humanist viewpoint”.

Mr Rocklov said it was a “valid discussion” to have over whether the measures aimed at saving lives may do even more damage. But he also said Swedish authorities were not giving enough information for people to make up their own mind.

“More and more experts are feeling uneasy with this stewardship. It is not allowing for an open debate. It is rather trying to push down and make people quiet.”

Companies do not need to be majority black-owned to qualify for support, says minister of small business development Khumbudzo Ntshavheni

As the country prepares to shut down for three weeks, the government is implementing a range of measures from tax deferrals to targeted funding for distressed businesses, in the hope that SA firms can weather the onslaught of the coronavirus.

The details outlined by ministers on Tuesday follow President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the disease and prevent overwhelming the country’s health system.

The support measures come at a time when SA’s growth was already dismal and its fiscal position acutely fragile, with little space to spend its way out of the recession that economists now believe is all but certain.

The cost of the necessary support efforts is yet to be tallied but the economic slowdown and the hit to tax revenues that would ensue is expected to have profound consequences for SA’s budget, economists said.

Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu said many South Africans had criticised continued messages about the importance of washing hands with water, asking where they would get the water to do this.

JOHANNESBURG – Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu on Tuesday said 2,000 sites in mostly rural and drought-stricken areas would be supplied with water amid the coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) in the country.

Sisulu provided details at the social cluster briefing in Pretoria following the lockdown announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa due to be implemented for 21 days from midnight on Thursday.

The minister said many South Africans had criticised continued messages about the importance of washing hands with water, asking where they would get the water to do this.

Sisulu said the private sector had supported these initiatives with soap and sanitisers.

“In Limpopo, Free State, and Eastern Cape we had already ordered some water tankers and we are increasing the number so that we can quickly cover those affected areas,” she said.

Billionaire Johann Rupert said his R1-billion assistance will be available to all small businesses and their employees, and not only black-owned businesses.

On Monday 23 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a nationwide lockdown for 21 days which will begin from midnight on Thursday 26 March.

This will have a devastating effect on the South African economy and businesses, with some economists predicting massive job losses.

To limit the economic impact of the shutdown on the economy, Ramaphosa said the government will be spending money to save lives and to support the economy.

“Government is providing seed capital of R150 million and the private sector has already pledged to support this fund with financial contributions in the coming period,” he said.

He also applauded the contribution made by the Rupert and Oppenheimer families of R1 billion each to assist small businesses and their employees affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

All South Africans will benefit from Rupert’s money
Shortly after this announcement, screenshots of a document started to circulate on social media which suggested that only black-owned businesses will qualify for financial assistance.

The document stated that for an SMME to qualify for relief, it “must be 51% black-owned”.

The Department of Small Business Development highlighted this was a draft document from a week ago and was still under revision.

“It was not meant to be shared with the public,” the department said on Twitter.

It is therefore not clear whether the same qualifying criteria will hold in the final version of the SMME relief funding document.

The government’s SMME website where small and medium-sized businesses can apply for funding also clearly asks for the gender and race of their shareholders.

It also asks applicants about the gender and race breakdown of their employees, which are typically associated with BEE requirements.

When Rupert was asked about the alleged “black-owned-only” assistance his response was clear – “Our assistance will be available to ALL South African businesses”.

It must be noted that Rupert’s donation is part of the Solidarity fund, which is separate from the government’s SMME relief fund.

To qualify for access to the SMME fund, businesses will be required to register on the SMME South Africa platform here.

MyBroadband contacted the Department of Small Business Development for more information about the issue, and a spokesperson said more details will be shared at a briefing today.

South Africa now has a Covid-19 solidarity fund, to help deal with the fallout of the novel coronavirus, and measures to slow its spread, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday night.

The government has seeded it with a R150 million donation.
It is not yet clear clear exactly how it will spend its money – but you can already contribute.

Contributions will be tax-deductible.

South Africa now has a solidarity fund that will try to ameliorate the impact of the novel coronavirus, and the measures put in place to slow its spread, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday.

The Solidarity Response Fund will support what the public sector is doing, Ramaphosa said, without providing details of its spending priorities or how funds will be accessed.

“The fund will focus efforts to combat the spread of the virus, help us to track the spread, care for those who are ill and support those whose lives are disrupted,” he said.

The government has seeded the fund with a R150 million donation.

“Across our country people and organisations have offered to help and the Solidarity Response Fund is a vehicle that will be set up to facilitate this,” according to the fund’s website.

Both Ramaphosa and the fund stressed that it will be well managed and accountable, with tight administration of money and donations.

Here are the donation details for South Africa’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Bank: Standard Bank
Branch name: Sandton City
Branch code: 051001
Account name: Solidarity Fund
Account number: 023070021
Account type: Current account
The fund will operate a call centre for donors, between 8AM and 6PM, on 0860 001 001 and can be emailed on info@responsefund.co.za.

Donations will be tax deductible, the fund said.

(Compiled by Phillip de Wet)

 

The South African government could deploy the army to enforce restrictions if there is a large spike in coronavirus cases, says health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize.

If that does not work, the government will look at area-specific lockdowns to contain epicentres of the virus. And if still unsuccessful, a national lockdown will be the last resort before a state of emergency, he said in an interview with the Sunday Times.

“Right now it is restrictions. (We) might have to begin to bring in the army to go out and work around the people, talk to them about hygiene, getting them to go sanitise, and so on.”

“As we sit and look at the epidemiological spread of the infection, we would begin to isolate areas where it is worse.”

Mkhize said the government will be guided by the rate at which  the virus is spreading before deploying the army.

“There isn’t a number, but there is a pattern that we want to prevent, and that is the internal transmission exploding.”

On Wednesday (18 March), the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)  gazetted a set of strict new regulations, empowering government to act against those who deliberately endanger themselves and others during the coronavirus epidemic.

The new Disaster Management Act regulations allow government to take action against groups and businesses that do not adhere to gatherings restrictions, as well as those who deliberately infect others with the Covid-19 virus or spread fake news about the outbreak.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) announced that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa has increased to 240 as of Saturday (21 March).

The Western Cape has seen the greatest increase in reported coronavirus cases – up to 74 from 56 on Friday. However, Gauteng remains the province with the most reported cases, up to 125 from 109 on Friday. The Eastern Cape has also reported its first case.

At 07h00  on Sunday, global cases stood at 308,258 and 13.068 deaths. 95,828 people have recovered.

If people think they can loot and steal and not get caught, many of them will. There have to be harsh consequences, or everything falls apart.

The authors of the article in question correctly identify that one of the key barriers to progress in corruption-related matters is the politics of the ANC. President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke a tough game on corruption but has proven himself to be anything but. The reasons for that are simple – the politics of the ANC are so corrupt that you cannot get ahead without making deals with the corrupt devils of their world. Everyone is beholden to each other and no one is free from dirty politics.

That – not a system that requires structural change – is the core of the problem.

My points are best illustrated on my home turf – in the embattled eThekwini Council, where I have served since 2011.

The harsh reality is that corruption at a local level results in a real breakdown of basic services, which almost always impacts on people’s dignity. You cannot live a dignified life if there is no water to wash, flush and cook, if there is rubbish piled outside your home, or if you cannot get to work because there are no bus services.

In days gone by, eThekwini (and the local councils that preceded the metro) was one of the best local government administrations in the country. Officials and politicians from across party lines speak fondly about how they worked together to get things done. The politics may have differed, but basic services were never in question.

We are now in a total race to the bottom, with basic line departments and municipal functions often completely dysfunctional.

An ANC councillor recently pulled me aside at City Hall and asked me if he was on the “Hawks hit list”. I asked him if he had done anything illegal, and he didn’t seem to understand what I meant. I mentioned this conversation later to a colleague in the ANC whom I consider a good person – one of the very few left in eThekwini. I said it seemed like the councillor who approached me didn’t understand what was legal and what wasn’t. The colleague laughed and said, “Don’t let these thieves fool you – they all knew, they just didn’t think they would get caught.”

The other argument made in the amnesty proposal is that corruption becomes so pervasive that it becomes very difficult not to be involved, and very difficult to pull the trigger. This is both true, and it isn’t.

As mentioned above, people know what is right and what is wrong. Where it becomes murky is that people think they can get away with proverbial murder, and for the most part, many have.

If people think they can loot and steal and not get caught, many of them will. There are people who won’t, but we can’t build public systems on the hope of good values and morals. There have to be harsh consequences, or everything falls apart.

Amnesty will only embolden the small players and cushion the big ones.

In some of the online comments around amnesty, someone suggested that it should only be granted to people who bring forward new information. The problem in this country is not a lack of information or knowledge. There are, of course, always more bodies to uncover, but we know enough to put thousands of people in jail if we tried. We know enough to recover billions in public funding and we know enough to get the accountability show on the road.

The primary proposition of the amnesty proposal seems to be that the existing systems haven’t worked and something else needs to happen. It is very difficult to accept that our systems haven’t worked when they haven’t been properly implemented, properly enforced and completely lack political will.

This argument is akin to advocating for the death penalty because the justice system is poor – it circumvents the actual nature of the problem and creates a false solution.

At the recent Daily Maverick Gathering, former Trillians Financial Advisory CEO and whistleblower Mosilo Mothepu was asked about the proposed amnesty. This is a woman who has put her life on the line to see justice, and her answer was simple. She doesn’t want to see amnesty; she wants to see blood.

South Africans need to see heads on stakes to believe that there is a system in place that will actually work. They stopped believing that a while ago, and when people have lost hope in the fairness of society, it is very difficult to win it back.

Amnesty is only going to further erode the faith and trust that people have in the fairness of society and in the functionality of our systems. From the bottom to the top, there needs to be justice and people need to see it for our country to start working again.

South Africans – and Durbanites in particular – don’t want amnesty. South Africans want blood.

This is not time to hold hands and forget; it’s time for the corrupt to pay. DM