Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter The North Gauteng High Court has declared alert Levels 3 and 4 of the national lockdown regulations unconstitutional and invalid. The Pretoria court however suspended the declaration of invalidity for a period of 14 business days to allow the government time to address the issues at fault. This means the alert Level 3 regulations which kicked in on Monday remain in place for now. “The regulations promulgated by the Minister of (Cooperative Governance) and Traditional Affairs in terms of the Disaster Management Act . . . are declared unconstitutional and invalid,” read part of the judgment delivered by…

Staff Reporter A clinic in the Free State has been temporarily closed after people associated with the health facility tested positive for COVID-19. The clinic is in Heilbron in the Fezile Dabi district. Provincial health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi told The Free Stater that nine people in the town, including some associated with the clinic, had tested positive for the coronavirus. “There are nine people that tested positive for COVID-19 at Heilbron and some of them are associated with the clinic,” he said Tuesday night. In a statement that Mondli sent out earlier, the provincial health department announced it had dispatched…

Staff Reporter The one-week delay in re-opening schools should give authorities enough time to address all outstanding health and hygiene issues and ensure a safe environment for both learners and teachers, key players in the education sector have said. The Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS) says it had recommended to the Basic Education Department not to rush the reopening of schools before ensuring all systems were in place, while the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) believes the seven-day postponement is long enough to ensure a successful return to schooling. FEDSAS chief executive officer Paul Colditz…

Long queues formed outside shops selling alcohol across South Africa after restrictions on its sale, imposed two months ago as part of measures to fight COVID-19, were lifted today. Social media posts showed people, who had braved the morning chill, cheering as buyers emerged with their bottles. The alcohol ban was to allow police and hospitals to better focus on tackling the coronavirus, the authorities said. Alcohol-fuelled violence is a huge problem in South Africa. Doctors and police say the ban has had a dramatic impact, contributing to a sharp drop in casualty admissions. But the country’s brewers and wine…

Staff Reporter South Africa has been forced to push back today’s reopening of schools by a week because a substantial number of schools are not ready as yet to welcome back pupils, Basic Education Angie Motshekga has said. The last-minute postponement of the resumption of classes for Grades 7 and 12 – which was only announced on Sunday night – followed reports by players in the education sector that raised concerns about the state of readiness. A number of government schools across the country, especially in rural areas, are reportedly in poor shape as they do not have running water,…

Staff Reporter The sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in the Fezile Dabi district could be a result of more test results being released by the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) in recent weeks, the provincial health department has said. The northern Free State district has recorded 24 new confirmed cases, bringing its tally to 33 with most of its major towns now affected. “This could be a result of test results being released by the NHLS,” provincial health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi said by telephone on Sunday night. “There is nothing unusual and people should not panic because there was a…

Staff Reporter Students doing their final year in nursing and allied health sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) will be the next group to be allowed on campus when the South Africa moves to alert Level 3 on Monday. In a letter addressed to students, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Francis Petersen said the phased return of students is line with the regulations of Level 3 lockdown stipulating that only a third of the staff and students may be on campus for face-to-face classes. “The next cohort of students who will be returning to campus is final-year…

South Africa says it has a backlog of nearly 100 000 unprocessed tests for the coronavirus, a striking example of the painful shortage of testing kits and reagents across Africa as cases steadily rise. “This challenge is caused by the limited availability of test kits globally,” the health ministry said in a statement, putting the backlog at 96 480 as of Monday. Priority is given to processing tests from patients admitted to hospitals and health workers, it said. South Africa has conducted more tests for the virus than any other country in Africa — more than 655 000 — and…

A deadly virus was ravaging South Africa when Belgian doctor Eric Goemaere first set foot in Cape Town’s sprawling Khayelitsha township on a chilly southern hemisphere winter of 1999. By then HIV had infected more than 5.6 million South Africans, causing thousands of deaths from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) – for which there is still no cure. “There was a traffic jam every day at the cemetery,” Goemaere recalled. “People were dying like flies . . . There was no accessible treatment so the sick simply went to church.” Two decades later, Goemaere and his colleagues at Doctors Without Borders…