Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter There are growing concerns that the illegal trade in life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs could be rife in the goldfields area after a Welkom man appeared in court this week facing a charge of illegal possession of drugs. Several other people, including health officials, were arrested in the area earlier this year. Tseko Sehloho, 32, appeared in the Welkom Magistrates Court on Monday after he was found with a large quantity of the ARV drugs in the gold mining town’s central business district which he could not account for. In a statement, police said officers from the Welkom Flying…

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation tonight. According to a statement from the Presidency, the address will take place at 8.30pm and will be livestreamed on various news channels. He will speak on South Africa’s ongoing measures to manage the spread of the coronavirus through the implementation of a risk-adjusted strategy. “The president’s address follows a number of meetings of Cabinet and the National Coronavirus Command Council,” the Presidency said. The announcement comes after opposition political parties called for Ramaphosa to make a statement as the country enters its nearly seven weeks of the nationwide lockdown, which…

Staff Reporter Five farmers escaped murder charges but were recently convicted of common assault and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm by the Free State High Court sitting in Parys after they severely beat two farm workers who had asked their employer for their salaries. The incident took place at Kockrust Farm in the small farming town, in the north-eastern Free State, on January 6 2016. National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said in a statement released Tuesday that Judge Corne van Zyl found Boeta van der Westhuizen, 53, and Anton Loggenberg, 53, guilty of assault with…

Staff Reporter Mystery surrounds a recent break-in at a funeral parlour in Clocolan in the eastern Free State where thieves made off with an undisclosed amount of embalming powder and exhumation liquid used to preserve dead bodies. Provincial police spokesperson Sam Makhele said in a statement released Monday that the suspects broke down the roller door at the Rest in Peace Funeral Parlour in Clocolan on April 28 to gain entry and broke open a steel cabinet that contained the highly toxic substances. It is however not clear what the thieves want to do with them but police believe they…

Staff Reporter Panic has reportedly gripped the sprawling industrial town of Sasolburg in the northern Free State after three family members, including an 81-year-old man, tested positive for COVID-19. In a statement, provincial health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi said the three were not showing any signs of illness but the octogenarian had been admitted at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein as a precautionary measure due to his advanced age. The man’s wife, aged 51, and his 33-year-old son who lives in Gauteng but had visited them are the other family members who tested positive. The wife has since been admitted at the…

Staff Reporter A Bloemfontein man got a shock when a bespectacled and masked woman walked into a shop in Rocklands township and asked him why he was not wearing a mask as he could be endangering his life and that of people around him in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprised by the woman’s boldness, the man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out his mask and immediately put it on, probably to avoid any further confrontation. Unbeknown to him, the woman was Free State Health MEC Montseng Tsiu who was in the area to give out face shields to…

The new coronavirus can persist in men’s semen even after they have begun to recover, a finding that raises the possibility the virus could be sexually transmitted, Chinese researchers say. A team at Shangqiu Municipal Hospital tested 38 male patients treated there at the height of the pandemic in China, in January and February. About 16 percent of them had evidence of the coronavirus in their semen, the team reported in the journal JAMA Network Open. About a quarter of them were in the acute stage of infection and nearly nine percent of them were recovering, the team reported. “We…

South African Breweries (SAB), one of the world’s largest brewers, says it may have to destroy 400 million bottles of beer as a result of the country’s ban on alcohol sales that is part of its lockdown measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. South Africa stopped all sales of alcohol when its lockdown came into effect on March 27 and the brewery has seen beer pile up at its production facilities. The brewer is seeking special permission from government to move the beer to other storage facilities. The transport of alcohol has also been outlawed in South Africa.…

Those who fail to adhere to lockdown regulations under the Disaster Management Act could face hefty fines varying between R1 000 and R5 000. South Africa went into a hard lockdown at the end of March in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Citizens’ movement has been limited including what can and cannot be sold during the lockdown. Level 4 of the lockdown kicked in on May 1. If you are caught outside your home during the lockdown curfew, between 8pm and 5am, or if you are caught selling tobacco or alcohol, you face the possibility of…