The government says it will not release minutes of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) discussions regarding the ban on the sale of cigarettes because they are ‘classified’.
This followed a demand by the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA), which launched an urgent legal challenge against the ban earlier this week. FITA demanded that the NCCC be ordered to provide minutes of its discussions on extending the prohibition on the sale of cigarettes.
News24 reported that in response to its questions, Presidency spokesperson Khusela Diko said President Cyril Ramaphosa and Cabinet colleague Nkosazan Dlamini-Zuma would not hand over NCCC minutes because the command council was ‘a coordinating structure of Cabinet so they (the minutes) are classified’.
As the death toll rose to 161, and the number of cases climbed by 424 to 8 232, senior government epidemiologist Dr Harry Moultrie of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and a member of the ministerial advisory committee, told News24 that there was ‘considerable uncertainty’ over the spread of the coronavirus and the effectiveness of interventions to slow infections.
A proper study of the effectiveness of the lockdown would have to wait a few more weeks.
He said it was expected parts of the country’s healthcare system would be overwhelmed as a result of an expected ‘rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases over the next few months’.
On a lighter note, the National Assembly’s Programming Committee got more than it bargained for when it sat down to a virtual meeting over the platform Zoom only to be interrupted by porn. News24 reported that, shortly after the meeting began, ‘a pornographic image flashed across the screen (and) a male voice was heard making insulting remarks to National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise’. As MPs expressed their disgust, more images and insults followed, and the virtual meeting was ended. The discussion resumed later on a different online platform.
In other virus-related news
- The BBC reported that the Bank of England forecast the UK economy to shrink 14% this year, its deepest recession on record;
- Nearly 3.2 million Americans filed for unemployment, with total claims since mid-March standing at 33 million; and
- Brazil reported 615 deaths, the highest one-day tally yet in the southern hemisphere.