Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has hinted that new ‘steps’ to be announced in ‘the next few days’ will balance the need to reduce the movement of people with the need to ease the negative impact of the lockdown on the economy and on food security.
This was the subject of debate in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national command council.
News24 reported Mkhize as saying: ‘What is the best way to ensure the balance between the transmission (of the coronavirus) and food supply? There is a huge amount of debate that goes on continuously.
‘We need to contain the virus by reducing the movement of people. We are very conscious how this has a negative impact on the economy and food security. Whatever steps you will hear of in the next few days, you will know that we have taken these two issues into account,’ he said.
National anxiety has mounted over the silence from the government since the Treasury’s briefing to the Cabinet on its economic proposals on Wednesday. Fin24 reported that ‘Cabinet still has not made a final decision’ and intended holding another meeting today.
The news site said the latest infection statistics ‘have triggered speculation that the lockdown may, in some form, extend well into May with dire consequences for business. Reports that the economy will reopen in stages only added to the anxiety, especially among small business owners’.
Positive cases rose to 3 158 yesterday, with deaths totalling 54.
Disquiet about the country’s economic outlook have been sharpened for ordinary savers by mounting speculation that, in order to fund relief efforts, the government could be eyeing private pensions.
The speculation has been spurred by African National Congress alliance partner Cosatu’s keenness on what the organisation’s parliamentary liaison officer Matthew Parks has described as using the full range of the state’s financial resources, including pensions, to save the economy.
Parks was quoted by Fin24 as saying: ‘We want a R1 trillion stimulus fund to assist the economy and we need to pool public and private funds. We were already in a recession with 40% unemployment before lockdown. That’s not the normal we want to go back to.’
In other news, News24 said a leaked plan revealed that allowing pupils to go back to school would also serve as screening and testing points for health workers.
It also emerged yesterday that the South African Military Ombud Office had received 28 complaints since the start of the lockdown, 15 of which were from the public alleging that South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members had used excessive force and physical abuse during lockdown patrols.
In other virus-related news
- According to Johns Hopkins University’s tracking, there are now more than 2.3 million cases of coronavirus around the world and more than 160 000 deaths;
- The United States has the most deaths of any country, with 39 090 fatalities;
- On Saturday, coronavirus deaths surged past 100 000 in Europe, accounting for nearly two-thirds of worldwide fatalities;
- The BBC reported that Vincent Asaro, 85, the Bonanno family crime boss who inspired Martin Scorsese’s film Goodfellas, won early release from a Missouri prison over concerns about coronavirus. Asaro was serving an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2017 to ordering associates to torch the car of a person who cut him off at a traffic stop. Asaro was found not guilty in the 2015 trial over the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK Airport in New York, where masked robbers made off with more than $5m in cash and $1m in jewelry – depicted in Scorsese’s film;
- The Duke of Sussex said he was ‘incredibly proud’ of the British public’s response to the crisis. ‘It’s such a wonderfully British thing that we all come to help when we need it,’ he said. Prince Harry, who is living in California, singled out 99-year-old war veteran Captain Tom Moore, who has raised more than £23m for Britain’s National Health Service by lapping his garden 100 times.