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DURBAN – It was the first province in the country to report a COVID-19 case and for a long time, KwaZulu-Natal had the most number of deaths but it has seen a slight decline.

Premier Sihle Zikalala says indications are that all districts in the province will move to Level 3 of the lockdown.

“The province is currently as of today sitting at 10-percent in terms of active cases and has moved down to fourth position countrywide,” Zikalala said.

The premier has warned that a move to Level 3 would still require compliance.

“There are strong indications that as KwaZulu-Natal all our regions may move to level 3. However, there is a caveat in order for that to happen and remain that way, everyone will have to comply with all the non-pharmaceutical approaches to preventing infections,” Zikalala said.

He says should a new trend of infections be seen in certain districts, they will have to be moved back a level.

Meanwhile, the health MEC says the province is ready to deal with an influx of patients at its health facilities.

More than 6,000 beds have already been prepared.

The provincial government has appealed to people to continue adhering to lockdown regulations and precautionary measures.

Article by ENCA

Hair and beauty businesses have called on the government to allow the sector to return to normal operations, arguing that social distancing and hygiene are inherent attributes of the industry.

“It is ironic that one can never acquire a hairdressing certificate unless they demonstrate that they understand how important hygiene and sanitisation is,” said Feroza Fakir, vice-president of the South African Association of Health and Skincare Professionals.

Businesses in the industry will only be allowed to operate during level 1 of the lockdown. Industry players are concerned that by the time that level is declared, many businesses will have crashed.

“People are very desperate and they are not able to put bread on the table,” said Fakir.

The association is working with the Employers’ Organisation for Hairdressing, Cosmetology and Beauty (EOHCB) to lobby the government to allow the industry to return to work.

The EOHCB said it is in the process of submitting a detailed plan to the department of trade & industry, arguing that it is important to allow hairdressers, nail technicians and beauty therapists to return to work. General manager Cobus Grobler said two such plans have already been forwarded to the department.

“We could open up establishments which have between two and five employees, with strict requirements, such as keeping a mandatory distance of up to 1.5m per work station. For larger businesses, we could say no full-body waxing or no client is allowed to spend more than an hour in an establishment, with thorough sanitisation and decontamination done between clients,” said Grobler.

“What is certain is that we have to return to work or we will have nothing to return to when the lockdown is lifted.”

Modern Hair and Beauty MD Chris Stofberg, whose company supplies 1,800 salons with products, said it is critical for the government to open up not just the industry, but the entire economy.

“We employ about 75 people and we didn’t make any turnover in April. We are not able to pay full salaries. We can’t go on like this. I see notices of salons closing every day, albeit under strict conditions.

“Hair, nails and beauty are key to the psychological wellbeing of people. I genuinely feel the ongoing closure of small businesses will do more harm than the virus itself.”

Co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, announcing two weeks ago that beauty products could be sold under level 4, said: “You can do it yourself.”

Article by Sunday Times

The high court in Pretoria on Friday declared that all people in SA are entitled to a number of rights which cannot be suspended, even during the Covid-19 state of disaster.

These include the right to life, the right not to be tortured in any way and the right not to be treated or punished in an inhumane and cruel way.

The court made these orders in an application brought by the family of Collins Khosa, the 41-year-old man who died after he was allegedly beaten by soldiers and metro police outside his home in Alexandra on April 10.

The family had sought these orders to ensure that no other members of the public would suffer the same fate as Khosa.

Khosa’s life partner, Nomsa Montsha, stated in an affidavit that she was at home with Khosa and two others when SANDF members accused Khosa of violating Covid-19 lockdown regulations.

Montsha said Khosa was taken outside the yard, where the soldiers poured beer on his head and body, slammed him against the cement wall, and kicked, slapped and punched him. He died a few hours later.

His family approached the high court in Pretoria on May 2 for a number of orders,  including that soldiers and metro police who were in the vicinity of his house at the time be disarmed and suspended.

They also asked for an order compelling defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and police minister Bheki Cele to develop and publish a code of conduct and operational procedures for soldiers and police deployed during the state of disaster.

And they sought an order compelling the state to establish a freely accessible mechanism for civilians to report allegations of torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment committed by the police, army and metro police during the state of disaster.

Judge Hans Fabricius granted all these orders on Friday.

He also ordered that members of the SANDF, police and metro police departments remain bound by the law to use only the minimum force that is reasonable to perform an official duty.

Fabricius awarded costs to the three people who brought the application, including Montsha.

In his judgment, Fabricius said the urgent application before him was of an unusual nature as it asked him to restate the law on the rights of all people.

Fabricius said all parties before court, including himself, were in agreement that the Covid-19 lockdown was necessary.

“The public is, however, entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, whether rich or poor.”

He said the public was entitled to the right to life and everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person.

Fabricius said the declaratory orders sought by the family “can assist in clarifying legal and constitutional obligations in a manner that promotes the protection and enforcement of the constitution and its values”.

Government lifts ban on e-commerce after DearSA campaign
DearSA welcomed Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel’s gazetting of new regulations today (Thursday 14 May 2020) allowing for all e-commerce transactions to take place, with the exception of restricted goods – notably cigarettes and alcohol.

This follows a campaign launched a week ago by DearSA in which it urged the minister to lift the restrictions on e-commerce, failing which it would have no option but to approach the courts for urgent relief.

DearSA requested a response from government by the end of Thursday, 14 May 2020.

“The announcement from Minister Patel is welcome and demonstrates government’s responsiveness to the voices of ordinary South Africans, who have been calling for e-commerce to be opened up without restrictions,” says Daniel Eloff of attorneys Hurter Spies, which is representing DearSA. “As the lockdown progresses, South Africans are understandably concerned at the impact it is having on their lives and on the economy, and we know this because of the surveys conducted on a regular basis by DearSA. There is growing frustration at the needless harm that is being done to the economy and small businesses by the extension of the lockdown to e-commerce platforms, the relaxation of which cannot possibly help in curbing the spread of the virus.”

Major boost for small businesses
Eloff says the lifting of the ban is a major boost for small businesses which – though they may be limited in terms of their physical interaction with customers – can at least now trade online to rescue their businesses.
The Government Gazette notice issued today says “e-Commerce can be a critical enabler to opening the economy through contactless transactions, which can reduce the movement of consumers, and the density of shoppers in retail spaces. Further it can accelerate innovation, support local manufacturing and increase access by the informal market and poorer South Africans.”

Eloff notes that this is precisely the intent and the wording of DearSA’s letter delivered to the Minister a week ago.
In terms of the regulations, online retailers are required to provide for as many payment options as possible for consumers, to reduce the risks of transmitting the virus, and to enable poorer consumers to access delivery services.

The regulations also specifically mention courier services for spaza shops and informal traders, so as to provide online shopping opportunities for customers in poorer areas.

Health and safety requirements
The Gazette notice imposes strict health and safety requirements on companies engaged in e-commerce, which includes screening of workers, the obligation to wear masks, workplace sanitation, and social distancing. Customers receiving goods from couriers are also required to wear masks.

Overkill
DearSA’s campaign to the government referenced several economic studies, some of them by government itself, show that a prolonged lockdown will have a devastating impact on the economy, with the construction sector likely to suffer a 30% decline in employment. A study by SA-TIED suggests the financial and manufacturing sectors are likely to experience a 15% decline in employment if the lockdown is prolonged.

The effect of the lockdown will be a massive decline in the demand and supply of many industries, with particularly severe effects in the service sectors, such as restaurants, entertainment, tourism, travel and hotels.

“While this is a welcome move by the government, we cannot assume that the economy will automatically right itself,” says Eloff. “Huge damage has already be done and urge government to further ease restrictions on economic activity while maintaining vigilance over the spread of the virus. However, we are now at the point where the lockdown is likely to result in many more deaths through poverty and other causes than through the virus itself. We have to get the country back to work.”

Many countries are refusing to open their schools for fear of a prompting a second wave of coronavirus infections. But their policies would appear to be flatly contradicted by evidence from Iceland. There, a company called deCODE Genetics, in association with the country’s Directorate of Health and the National University Hospital, has analyzed the results of coronavirus tests on 36,500 people. The tests identified 1,801 cases of people suffering from the disease — and 10 deaths. Each case was carefully tracked. In not a single case could the researchers find evidence of a child passing on the disease to their parents. The company’s CEO, Kari Stefansson, revealed the findings in an interview carried on the British Science Museum website. He suggests the fact that few children suffer any symptoms, and are less likely to cough, is an important factor.

The Icelandic study reinforces the results of a review of evidence last week by the Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health, which said it couldn’t find a single documented case of a child under 10 passing COVID-19 to an adult. In one case a nine-year-old boy returning from a skiing holiday in the Alps was found to be infected with Sars-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, as well as influenza and the common cold. He didn’t pass Sars-CoV-2 to anyone, in spite of coming into contact with 170 children. He did, however, pass the flu and cold to his siblings — but not Sars-CoV-2.

It ought to be pretty strong evidence that opening schools is safe, and is among the first moves which should be taken to exit from lockdown. But don’t bet against the unions squashing plans to open before September at the earliest.

Article by Spectator USA

South Africa’s tourism industry is preparing for the country’s lockdown restrictions to last beyond the end of 2020.

Presenting in a webinar on Monday (11 May), South African Tourism chief executive office Sisa Ntshona said that the industry was still working on ‘guesstimates’, but that based on current projections, the country would only reach level 1 of its lockdown by Q1 2021.

“We have no clue as to when we will move to level 3 as a country, or level 2 or level 1. We also have no clue as to how long we will stay at level 4. It will all depend on the trajectory of the pandemic.”

He added that tourism in the country will only become partially active at level 2 of the lockdown, with the sector beginning to fully open up again at level 1.

“Based on the current trajectory we are seeing, where September is where we have peak coronavirus cases, it is likely that level 2 will kicks in around November and level 1 kicks in around January 2021,” Ntshona said.

He said that this trajectory is also based on government’s current classifications of sectors and that it may decide to open tourism in the country at an earlier date if the sector takes steps to reduce risks.

“The conversation that is happening is ‘what can be done’ to de-risk the sector. In the current form it is level 1, however, it can be re-rated to a lesser risk and can move up the scale.”

This aligns with commentary by Intellidex analyst, Peter Attard Montalto, who said that South Africans should prepare for a roller-coaster of level changes for at least the next 12 months.

“Overall there is still no clear strategy from government on how and when – based on either medical or economic drivers – the country or metros should be moved between levels,” he said.

Because of the pressures from businesses, which are eager to get back to economic activity, and the reality of the pandemic – being that the peak of infections is yet to hit, and a second peak is expected to follow as more relaxed restrictions take root – Attard Montalto expects a baseline scenario of many ups and downs in the coming months.

“The national lockdown may be reduced to level 3 for a month or so, and then back to level 4, and then into level 5 for the peak through July and August,” he said.

“This, before a return slowly back to level 2 by the end of the year, and level 1 in the first quarter of next year – before a ramp back up on a second wave in the middle of 2021.”

Article by BusinessTech

This follows an earlier announcement by the minister that Grade 7 and 12 learners would be able to return to school on 1 June 2020, on the basis they were on the cusp of completing primary and high school, and required special consideration.

DearSA’s letter points out that the reason cited for the lockdown is the need to slow the spread of the disease and “flatten the curve” of infection so as not to overburden the health care system with Covid-19 cases.

Writing on behalf of DearSA, Daniel Eloff of attorney Hurter Spies, says it supports government’s campaign to curtail the spread of the virus, but has urged it to follow a data-driven approach to decision-making over lockdown regulations. With the passage of time, more data has come to light calling into question the severity of the current Alert Level 4 lockdown, particularly on children of school-going age.

Citing research from the Actuarial Society of SA, DearSA points out that children aged 19 and below have a minuscule chance of contracting the virus. Only 0.4% of all cases showing symptoms that require hospitalisation are drawn from the 0-19 age bracket in SA. For children up to the age of 9, the percentage of symptomatic cases requiring hospitalisation falls to 0.1% of the total.

“Lockdown measures cannot stop the virus from spreading, but they can slow down the speed of infections,” says the DearSA letter to the minister. “Lockdowns will not save the lives of those who contract Covid-19 and do not require hospitalisation. They also do not save the lives of those who contract the virus and would sadly and regrettably succumb to the disease even if they gained access to an ICU bed. They only assist those who contract the virus and would survive if they were hospitalised but are unable to receive such care because the health system has been overrun.”

Multi-country studies further show that children are at extremely low risk of infection relative to adults. Joint research by Chinese medical authorities and the World Health Organisation show negligible instances of child-to-parent transmission.

It is vitally important that children be allowed back to school on 1 June 2020, as various studies have shown the importance of early learning for later life development.

The Lancet Early Childhood Development Series emphasises the importance of the first five years of a child’s life. These are the formative years where “factors such as adequate healthcare, good nutrition, good quality childcare and nurturing, a clean and safe environment, early learning and stimulation will, to a large extent, influence his/her future as an adult.”

The closure of schools has placed strain on families, and by allowing schools to reopen, this would have the added benefit of freeing up essential workers forced to remain home to care for their own children.

Based on the evidence now emerging after several weeks on collating data on Covid-19 cases, DearSA says keeping children under the age of 10 at home serves no purpose in slowing the spread of the virus, and urges the minister to reopen schools for those in this age bracket on 1 June 2020.

Contact Daniël Eloff of Hurter Spies Inc.
deloff@hurterspies.co.za
082 838 5290

Dear SA challenges government over e-commerce ban and 3-hour exercise limit

Attorneys for civil rights group DearSA today delivered a letter of demand to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, challenging the government’s ban on e-commerce and its limitation on outside exercise to three hours a day.

The organisation has requested the government amend the Covid-19 lockdown regulations to allow for all forms of online retailing on the grounds that this would support rather than impede the campaign to stop the spread of the virus.

It also wants government to allow South Africans to engage in any form of non-group outdoor exercise during daylight hours, as opposed to the current daily allowance between the hours of 6h00 and 9h00.

Attorney for Dear SA, Daniel Eloff of Hurter Spies Inc, has also notified the minister that unless a response is received by the close of business on 14 May 2020, Dear SA will be compelled to seek urgent relief in court.

“Our client, however, trusts that unnecessary litigation could be avoided and look forward to your urgent response,” concludes Eloff’s letter to the minister.

The letter raises concerns that government decisions over the lockdown are ad hoc rather than data-driven, which has resulted in a potential massive economic overkill.

Cost of protracted lockdown to human life worse than the disease

The letter to the minister cites data from Pandemic Data and Analytics (PANDA) showing the years of life lost to South Africans as a result of the lockdown could be 29 times more costly to life than the disease itself.

PANDA estimates that nearly 14 million years of life could be lost to the population of SA as a result of the lockdown.

Massive overkill

Various economic studies, some of them by government itself, show that a prolonged lockdown will have a devastating impact on the economy, with the construction sector likely to suffer a 30% decline in employment. A study by SA-TIED suggests the financial and manufacturing sectors are likely to experience a 15% decline in employment if the lockdown is prolonged.

The effect of the lockdown will be a massive decline in the demand and supply of many industries, with particularly severe effects in the service sectors, such as restaurants, entertainment, tourism, travel and hotels, according to SA-TIED.

In a presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance, National Treasury recently warned that it was projecting between 3 and 7 million job losses as a result of a protracted lockdown to fight the spread of Covid-19.

Further data from the Actuarial Society of SA shows that the risks of Covid-19 are highly correlated with age, with more than half the cases requiring hospitalisation in SA occurring in the 70+ age group. Fewer than 5% of all cases requiring hospitalisation are aged below 40.

Lockdown measures cannot stop the virus from spreading, but they can slow down the speed of infections. Lockdowns will not save the lives of those who contract Covid-19 and do not require hospitalisation. They also do not save the lives of those who contract the virus and would sadly and regrettably succumb to the disease even if they gained access to an ICU bed. They only assist those who contract the virus and would survive if they were hospitalised but are unable to receive such care because the health system has been overrun.

Opening e-commerce would reduce contact between infected persons

Dear SA also points to a study showing that the key benefit of e-commerce is that it substantially reduces contact that would be experienced in physical stores. To therefore ban e-commerce on the grounds that this is unfair to bricks and mortar stores is irrational if the purpose is to stop the spread of the disease. Bricks and mortar stores are far more likely to accelerate their online offerings if allowed to do so.

The letter also cites studies from China showing that pandemic outbreaks are much less likely to spread outdoors than indoors. “This means people should be given more freedom to exercise outdoors during daylight hours,” says Dear SA. Limiting the exercise window to three hours a day creates congestion and raises the risk of transmission.

Dear SA says it is calling for a reasonable approach to regulations aimed at addressing the public health issue.

“I think we have to ask government to be a lot more considered, a lot more rational in the way decisions are taken.”

That’s the view of former finance minister Trevor Manuel, interviewed by Stephen Grootes about South Africa’s lockdown regulations on SAFM on Monday morning.

Manuel was speaking a day after publishing an op-ed in City Press which expressed deep concern over the violation of the South African Constitution by security forces policing lockdown.

“There are daily reports of the abuse of power by the security forces, including assaults with sjamboks; the arrest of citizens for the pettiest of infractions; the payment of admission of guilt fines by people desperate to get out of custody, and a long list of instances of misbehaviour,” Manuel wrote.

“I have not heard senior police and army officers, ministers or the president call out this behaviour.”

Speaking on SAfm, Manuel unflatteringly compared the behaviour of security forces under the current state of disaster to that of the apartheid military.

“Nowhere under apartheid emergency regulations would we tolerate that kind of thing. In fact, the voices that spoke out against apartheid were largely about the abuse of soldiers,” Manuel said.

“We saw policemen suspended for acting violently against communities under apartheid, under the state of emergency. So why should we be tolerant of the misbehaviour of soldiers here?”

The former finance minister suggested that the role of South African police, as in other countries, should be to “assist people” rather than for cops “to go from shop to shop picking on poor shopkeepers”.

Manuel stressed that the conduct of security forces was not the only aspect of South Africa’s lockdown which concerned him. He accused government of irrationality in a number of lockdown regulations.

“We must ensure that the economic rules are rational, and I think that a lot of the decisions that have been taken don’t pass the test of rationality,” Manuel said.

“The idea that you can only exercise for three hours a day – none of this passes the test of rationality.”

Manuel currently serves as the chairman of Old Mutual and as a senior adviser to the Rothschild Group. In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Manuel would be deployed as one of the African Union’s special envoys to raise funds for Africa’s fight against Covid-19.

Manuel was at pains to acknowledge that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a “deep health crisis” to South Africa.

But he believes that the best approach to the crisis would see less heavy-handed policing, and more opportunity for “ordinary South Africans [to] own the changes that are necessary to ensure that we can lower the infection rates of Covid-19”. DM

Article originally published on Daily Maverick

The government has admitted to holding back information from the public on the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it is doing so to avoid panic.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, conceded this yesterday on inquiries by the Sunday Times, after leading experts questioned why Covid-19 modelling data is being kept under wraps.

The move to keep the data out of the public eye comes after an earlier model on which the strict lockdown was based was heavily criticised.

It projected thousands more infections and deaths than SA has experienced to date. As at Friday, 9,420 people in SA have been infected with Covid-19, and 186 have died.

“We don’t want to put these models out to the public as if they are the gospel truth,” Diko said.

“There is an element where we want to avoid panic in communities, and we’re also mindful of the stigma of the virus.”

She conceded that “we need to allow people to feel more in control. That is perhaps something that is not being done as well as we could, because when people are armed with information, they feel like they are taking charge of their lives rather than just receiving info from the government.”

Diko said Ramaphosa visited the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research “to view the CSIR system, which can drill down to street level and allow for projections. The CSIR raised that these are fluid, and we don’t want a situation where we put out information when it changes by the minute.”

She added they were working on ways to better communicate with the public.

Experts said the move to limit the flow of scientific data on the pandemic means the government will make its decision on whether to reopen the economy further based on data that South Africans are not privy to.

The data will include epidemiological models drawn up by leading scientists, actuaries and mathematicians tracking how effective the lockdown has been.

Constitutional and medical experts are calling for greater transparency, especially because the rate of easing the lockdown is crucial to the future of an economy that has been brought to its knees.

But those working with the data confirmed to the Sunday Times this week they had been told to keep it confidential.

With infection rates soaring this week and poor people starving because they cannot work, the president and the national command council face decisions that will affect many lives. These are challenges leaders across the world are grappling with, as many countries begin to ease lockdowns in a bid to revive dying economies.

With economic data for April beginning to show the devastating impact of the first full month, Business for SA has urged the government to move quickly to