Author: The Free Stater

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…

United States President Donald Trump on Friday said he is terminating the US relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus, saying the WHO had essentially become a puppet organisation of China. Appearing in the White House Rose Garden, Trump went ahead with repeated threats to eliminate American funding for the group, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Trump said the WHO had failed to make reforms to the organisation that the president had demanded earlier this month. He said Chinese officials “ignored their reporting obligations” about the virus to the…

The police officer who was seen on video kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died in custody after pleading that he could not breathe, was arrested Friday and charged with murder in a case that sparked protests across the United States and violence in Minneapolis. Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman said Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Freeman did not provide immediate details, but said a criminal complaint would be made available later Friday and that more charges were possible. In the video, Chauvin is seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck as…

Staff Reporter The Free State province has successfully traced about 99 percent of the people who made contact with those who tested positive for COVID-19. “Our strongest point is contact tracing,” the provincial head of department for health, Dr David Motau, told journalists on Friday at Bophelo House in Bloemfontein when he received 30 tablets donated by MTN to be used for capturing data when tracing contacts. “If you look at the cases that we have had since the advent of the church incident, the school and all the other cases, we have been able to trace 99 percent of…

Staff Reporter The Free State High Court has sentenced a teenager to 15 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the murder of his girlfriend in May last year. Obed Leshoro, 19, a college student from Naudeville in Welkom, pleaded guilty to killing Naledi Lethoba, 21, on May 19, 2019 in a brutal attack that left her with a knife stuck in her neck and some body parts missing. Lethoba, from Bothaville, was a student at the Goldfields TVET College in Welkom. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping told The Free Stater by telephone that Leshoro suspected his girlfriend of…

Staff Reporter Yolandi Potgieter has claimed two big awards at the Free State Cricket Virtual Awards held this Thursday evening. The batting all-rounder was named as player of the year and players’ player of the year. In the 2019/20 domestic season, Potgieter raked up to 200 runs in the CSA Women’s Provincial T20 Competition, finishing the season with a batting average of 33.3. She also showed her skill with the ball, finishing the CSA Women’s Provincial One-Day Competition with a bowling economy of 3.98, including her season best figures of four wickets for nine runs in four overs against Northerns…

Staff Reporter Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) has launched its landmark Ikageng Employee Share Trust that will offer its employees shares and direct economic participation in the business. Ikageng, which means “let’s build ourselves” in SeTswana, will benefit nearly 8 000 South Africa-based employees working at CCBSA, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) and Appletiser. CCBSA managing director Velaphi Ratshefola said in a statement the initiative was aimed at ensuring employees have a vested interest in the company and encourage them to participate in the company’s long-term vision of sustained profitability. “We remain committed to the ideal of transformation and B-BBEE, and…

Staff Reporter Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela and Education MEC Tate Makgoe are expected to brief the media on the phased in re-opening of schools in the province next Thursday. Schools are set to re-open on Monday starting with Grades 7 and 12 classes after being closed for more than two months in line with the national lockdown put in place to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus. A statement issued by the Free State provincial government said the briefing will elaborate on the factors considered to allow schools to re-open. “Essentially, the briefing will focus on the…

Staff Reporter Xhariep district in the southern Free State has recorded its first COVID-19 fatality as the province reported two new deaths to bring the tally to eight. The latest deaths occurred in Bethulie in Xhariep and Bloemfontein in Mangaung. Provincial health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi told The Free Stater that the two did not have underlying health conditions and that contact tracing teams have been deployed to ensure that all contacts are traced and tested. “The department is paying special attention to Bethulie in particular and the entire Xhariep district in general as we have to stop it from becoming…