News in South Africa 12th February: 1. SONA falls flat but TERS reinitiated: Opposition parties have described President Cyril Ramaphosa’s fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona) as out of touch and out of ideas. Ramaphosa delivered little in the way of new plans in his address, focusing rather on reporting back on progress. For […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 11th February 2021:
News in South Africa 11th February: 1. National state of disaster extended: Cabinet has approved the extension off the national state of disaster by another month, with the next ‘end’ date set for 15 March 2020. The extension means the country has been in the state of disaster for a year. Critics and opposition parties […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 10th February 2021:
News in South Africa 10th February: 1. Ratepayers have had enough: Rates and tax revolts are either underway or being contemplated by ratepayer associations fed up at being forced to pay rates and taxes to dysfunctional municipalities. They are called ‘tax diversions’ rather than revolts, and they’re of questionable legality, but several ratepayer associations are […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 9th February 2021:
News in South Africa 9th February: 1. Updated academic calendar released for schools: The Department of Basic Education has published the updated academic calendar for schools in South Africa for 2021. The amended calendar comes after the return of public schools was delayed by several weeks until 15 February, due to the impact of a […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 8th February 2021:
News in South Africa 8th February: 1. AstraZeneca ineffective against local Covid variant: The roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine to South Africa’s health workers has been temporarily halted following results showing low efficacy against the South African variant of the coronavirus. South African health workers will now receive the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 5th February 2021:
News in South Africa 5th February: 1. Future alcohol bans still a possibility: The blanket ban on alcohol sales might be over, but the legal battle between South African Breweries (SAB) and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is not. And, according to an affidavit filed by the minister in the […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 4th February 2021:
News in South Africa 4th February: 1. 3.1 Million vaccines from Covax: South Africa is expected to get another 3.1 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine in the first half of this year. COVAX has announced that around 2.8-billion jabs from AstraZeneca and 117,000 from Pfizer should be made available to South Africa. That is if the vaccines are […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 3rd February 2021:
News in South Africa 3rd February: 1. Calls for transparency with vaccine tenders: The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has sent a letter to the ministers of health and finance calling for open tender processes for the storage and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine. The committee has requested the two ministers in the letter […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 2nd February 2021:
News in South Africa 2nd February: 1. SA Lockdown measures relaxed: South African lockdown measures have been relaxed as the country records its lowest number of daily infections since the start of December. Ramaphosa announced the country would remain on an adjusted Level 3 with the sale of alcohol, among other things, being permitted. “In fact, […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 29th January 2021:
News in South Africa 29th January: 1. Eskom to collect R6 billion from customers: Eskom has announced that the price of electricity in South Africa will increase from 1 April 2021. This is as a result of three decisions made by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), which Eskom said will bring electricity […]
