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About the Author: Dan Adkins is the CEO of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.transnationalacademicgroup.com" target="_blank">Transnational Academic Group</a> &#8211; Education Management Services Provider of <a href="http://curtindubai.ac.ae/?utm_medium=Backlink&amp;utm_source=CNBC&amp;utm_campaign=COVID-19%20Lessons%20to%20be%20learned%20from%20the%20pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Curtin University Dubai.</a> He joined the Group in 2009, prior to which he was in the information technology industry providing services for companies including IBM, Dell, Clorox, Philips, Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, Merck, and VISA. 
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The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in modern times. Over the past 105 years, there have only been three to four incidents that have had nearly as severe and global an impact: the 1918 Flu Pandemic, World War One, the Great Depression, and World War Two.&nbsp;Events like these defined generations and inspired certain behaviours in those of that generation.&nbsp;Unfortunately, there are few alive who have first-hand memory of any of these events.&nbsp;Historically, coming out of such events, people have developed certain traits and lifestyles that reflect that hardship they have experienced and a desire to avoid such hardship in the future.



These events shared several traits; they were unexpected, unprecedented in their scope, and unpredictable in their impact and length.&nbsp;All of these traits cause uncertainty about the future, resulting in stress and fear which often lead to poor decisions being made that simply exacerbate the problems.



As these events were unexpected and very few people were, due to their situation and lifestyle, prepared for them.&nbsp;As humans, we generally live very much in the present and do not give a significant amount of thought to the future.&nbsp;Even when we do think of the future, it tends to be from a place of optimism, which is focused on our future goals and desires.&nbsp;&nbsp;But, just as companies should have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan, so should we as individuals.&nbsp;This however goes against human nature.&nbsp;Rare is the person who has achieved the balance of being able to always consider, “what is the worst that could happen?” and yet maintain the realistic optimism needed to prepare for the future.



After these events, people had an idea of, “what is the worst that could happen?” and were determined to make sure that if it ever happened again, they would be ready for it so that they would never face the fear and suffering that they had just experienced.&nbsp;&nbsp;It has been said that those who do not know history are destined to repeat it[1], therefore let us take some lessons from history so that we best know how to deal with the current pandemic, and how to be better prepared for the crises that we will surely face in the future.



Coming out of these events, most people had new priorities.&nbsp;First, they discovered what was really important in life.&nbsp;People had found that things were not nearly as important as people.&nbsp;Many people lost all that they owned during these events, and yet they survived.&nbsp;&nbsp;They learned that losing family and friends hurt much more than losing things and that even when all material things were lost, it was the support of family and friends that made life bearable and provided both a motivation and pathway to eventually recover.&nbsp;This led to both putting greater value on the relationships with family and friends and to having less desire for material possessions, as well as valuing character over status.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Second, they realized the value of having a reserve on which they could draw in the next crisis.&nbsp;These generations became generations of savers, who, as my grandmother would say, “set aside a little something for a rainy day”.&nbsp;While this goes against the natural desire to have pleasure in the present and to be less concerned about the future, the fear of suffering again was sufficient to overcome the desire for immediate gratification.&nbsp;Third, they came to understand the criticality of remaining employable.&nbsp;They understood that the social contract had changed and doing your job was not enough to ensure that you could stay with your company until retirement.&nbsp;This realisation led to an increase in enrolment in higher education that continues to this day.&nbsp;It led to a rapid growth in entrepreneurship that is still continuing. It also led to a culture of a strong work ethic, realising the importance of being seen as fully committed to ones work in maintaining job security.



Unfortunately, the seven decades that have intervened since these great times of struggle have changed the culture and the lessons of the past have been lost.&nbsp;Worldwide marketing efforts and the global media have glorified materialism, status and celebrity, leading to the death of the culture of character.&nbsp;The glorification of possessions and status have led to a consumerist culture that is far exceeding the ability of the Earth’s resources, and has led to less and less money being put aside for a rainy day.&nbsp;Over the decades, many of the social safety nets that had been established have been eliminated or weakened to the point of being ineffectual.&nbsp;As has been demonstrated in countries like Australia and New Zealand, proper actions when supported by effective healthcare and government systems, had the ability to stop the pandemic with both minimal loss of life and as little adverse economic impact as possible.&nbsp;Much of the damage that is being seen now in the world is directly attributable to the decades long destruction of the social safety net, especially the health care systems, and most importantly to the poor decisions of governments, with the United States, Brazil, and Sweden clearly serving as case studies.



As an individual, it may seem that there is little that can be done to improve the situation in this time of pandemic, but such defeatist attitudes serve no one well.&nbsp;There is much that can be done as an individual to make things better during the pandemic, and to make sure that both you and society are better prepared for the next crisis.



First, we must overcome the human desires to do whatever we want and instead take every possible action to limit the spread of the virus by staying home unless absolutely necessary, maintaining social distancing when in public, and consistently and correctly wearing personal protective equipment like masks and gloves.&nbsp;The 1918 flu pandemic demonstrated that those communities who followed good practices to limit the spread of the virus not only had better health outcomes, but also had substantially faster economic recovery.&nbsp;By controlling the virus, Australia and New Zealand have already been able to reopen their internal economies and are not facing a second wave of infections, while countries like the United States, which even according to the guidelines established by the United States government, is reopening too soon, will almost certainly face a more severe second wave similar to what was seen in the 1918 pandemic, which will cause even more economic damage.



Second, we would do well to personally take guidance from our ancestors who lived through the prior crises in understanding how to deal with this one.&nbsp;During prior times of crisis, communities worked together to help each other out.&nbsp;Those who had the financial ability, contributed to help others with material needs.&nbsp;A substantial informal economy formed based largely on barter, where people used what they had to help others and in turn received help themselves from others, much as my grandmother described trading vegetables from her garden for eggs from one neighbour and meat from another.&nbsp;&nbsp;At that time, social class was largely irrelevant and the community stood strong together.



Third, as we come out of the pandemic, we should apply the lessons that we have learned and live our lives in a way that both prepares us for any future crisis and is sustainable.&nbsp;&nbsp;Coming out of the crisis, we should realise how we have been manipulated by marketing, media, social media, and celebrity into valuing material things, often over people or character. The way that those in the most developed countries are living is absolutely not sustainable and would be catastrophic if adopted by the rest of the world. While absolute minimalism has its virtues, it may be too much for some people.&nbsp;However, everyone can adjust to living a life where they purchase only what they absolutely need, live in a residence no larger than is absolutely required, do not buy products for status or brand, do not waste perishable items, and use every product until it can no longer be used. This not only gets us off of the consumerism treadmill and stops us from comparing our real life to someone’s highlight reel on social media, but also allows us to save money to be better prepared for any future crisis and gets us much closer to living in a sustainable way so that Earth is still in good shape for our children and grandchildren.



Let us together pledge to take this global crisis and catastrophe and use it as the driver to make a lifelong commitment to living in a way that is sustainable and that prepares us for any crisis yet to come.



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[1]George Santayana



Content and images supplied by <a href="http://curtindubai.ac.ae/?utm_medium=Backlink&amp;utm_source=CNBC&amp;utm_campaign=COVID-19%20Lessons%20to%20be%20learned%20from%20the%20pandemic">Curtin University Dubai</a>.

Facebook holds on as TikTok invades Social Media in SA

COVID-19: Lessons to be learned from the pandemic

By Nic Wolpe



The pandemic has thrown the spotlight on the gross inequalities that plague our world; the bitter harvest of unfettered capitalism and consumption. COVID-19 has thrown millions of people out of work and onto the lines at soup kitchens and food banks to exist on the slender generosity of others. Amidst this we read how the wealth of the wealthiest of society continues to grow exponentially.



In the United States, in the thick of it all, came the sickening death at the hands of police of an innocent African American. It sparked outrage on the streets around the world and brought into stark focus our world of racial inequality and prejudice. A staggering reality for the land that gave us the sweet words of independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, &nbsp;that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.&#8221;



The brutal and senseless murder of George Floydripped down those lofty ideals and cast them into the gutter.



Aside from this, as the world struggles to contain COVID-19, concern is growing that governments, under the guise of addressing the pandemic, are slowly whittling away at hard won freedoms. It is unfortunate and sad that South Africa is not above these accusations. There has been a rising tide of voices expressing concern that the freedoms and civils rights secured by our struggle against apartheid are being undermined; that the declaration of a “National State of Disaster” is being used to emasculate our Freedom Charter, Bill of Rights and Constitution,&nbsp; on the way to a draconian state. The fear is there are elements within Government who are abusing the powers given to them through the declaration of the “National State of Disaster”, to strengthen not only their political positions but to circumnavigate the democratic laws of the land, in search of greater power and control.



It is interesting to note that President Lincoln, following his decision shortly after the start of the Civil War, to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus, came in for similar criticism. There are indeed similar parallels in the justification to rein in democratic principles for the sake and wellbeing of the country and its people. However, can the argument used by President Lincoln that his actions were dictated by serving the national interest be used now to propagate and justify certain measures being implemented under the “ National State of Disaster” as being in the National Interest and wellbeing of our people. Therefore, the fundamental question is can one draw a justifiable comparison between war and the battle against a virus, to justify some of the draconian measures being imposed in the name of national Interest, which has curtailed and put restrictions on our freedoms and civil liberties. Venturing down this path has potential dangers and opens a Pandora’s Box for abuse, particular if our political leaders are susceptible to the concentration and accumulation of unfettered political power, particularly when they begin to use such power to undermine and discredit the necessary checks, balances and overseeing mechanisms, to not only hold our political leaders to account and the potential possibility of political misuse and abuse of such power. As Plato remarked “the measure of a man is what he does with power” and as President Lincoln stated: “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”.



Unfortunately history is strewn with incidents of political leaders accumulating immense political power and abusing and riding roughshod over the very mechanisms to check and limit such political abuses and in the process undermining the populous civil rights and liberties. A problem we face as Plato suggests in many cases is those who rise to power do so because most good men are indifferent to public affairs. As he says “ one of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors



 America, unfortunately is currently living proof of Plato’s concern. We have all being watching with utter dismay – on CNN &#8211; how a group of Police Officers, who swore to protect and serve, to uphold the law, abused this oath in such a blatant, brutal and cavalier way.  The look on the officer’s face, as he kept his kneed of the neck of George Floyd, was one of arrogance, the invincibility of being untouchable. This is not surprising when there is a President in the White House, who at a time like this should be showing statesmanship and leadership, but instead belittles the pandemic by making a wild and ludicrous statement that drinking disinfectant will cure you of COVID-19 and following the barbaric killing of George Floyd by police offices, actions reminiscent of apartheid security forces, tweets: &#8220;when the looting starts, the shooting starts.&#8221; The President then has the audacity to play naïve and the affront to claim he has no idea that the saying came from in the violent days of South Africa.



One is left stunned and bewildered that the leader, supposedly of the free world, only interest and concern is for the police to turn on its people, when what is needed and required, is leadership, compassion, understanding, empathy and solidarity at a time of multiple distress, pain and anguish. His actions and behaviour show he has no respect for human life, common decency and the fundamental principles upon which the United States was founded on. At times like this, just like during the very dark days of apartheid, we all hope for a brighter and better tomorrow;, a tomorrow built on and enshrined in the principles of universal human rights, equality and justice for all. This is now needed more than ever before, as it was hope that pushed and propelled our people forward in our struggle against apartheid. The endurance and spirit of hope combined with solidarity, unity of a shared common purpose can bring about what we all crave and desire a better life and world for all.

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COMMENT:  Nic Wolpe on George Floyd – Why can’t we banish bigotry like we banished apartheid?

Matshidiso Moeti, the regional head for Africa for the World Health Organisation , has stood firm in the face of backlash from the continent over her advice to hold back on using herbal medicine from Madagascar against COVID-19.



Social media was alive with criticism in the days following Moeti’s cautious reaction to this a tonic produced from a plant called Artemesia blended with a collection of herbs grown on the island of Madagascar. Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina has presented it to heads of state at the African Union as a herbal prevention of treatment of COVID-19.



“Africa should believe in herself instead of waiting for approval from a foreign organization to provide a cure for COVID-19,”says one tweet this week despite the fact that South Africa has volunteered to test the elixir.



“We survived diseases with our own traditional remedies for centuries without WHO’s approval. We are Africans, the bush is our pharmacy,” say other tweets, “Rather be killed by an African drug than a western vaccine.&#8221;



In her response Moeti was diplomatic, yet firm in her response in WHO’s weekly briefing to Africa’s media. She pointed out that WHO had worked for many years with governments to help them integrate African medicine into their health systems and also supported trials of herbal cures.



“Any medicine that is to be used we advise people to take it through trials . We are in talks with Madagascar to see what we can do,” says Moeti.



“We are not at all discouraging the use of the product, but would like to advise&nbsp; that is tested so when we celebrate the use of this product in Africa is we would like to do so with some evidence from tests behind it.” &nbsp;&nbsp;



For centuries – long before pharmaceuticals factories were built – African herbs were a natural and trusted way of healing and warding off ailments. The liquid is being made by the Madagascar Institute of Applied Research and distributed door-to-door by soldiers in the capital Antananarivo. The WHO also painted a bleak picture of COVID-19 in Africa. It said there were 72,000 confirmed 2500 died in 47 countries in Africa. On top of this, there were 200 million Africans going hungry, according to the World Food Programme, with many more by the day as children missed their only meal of the day as school stayed shut.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti – WHO Regional Director for Africa

COVID-19: WHO Africa head Moeti stands firm over Madagascar medicine.

By Chris Bishop.



Like most hard pressed entrepreneurs in Africa, Don Scott had to cut costs and batten down the hatches in the face of the COVID-19 lockdown – like very few, he also had to worry about wild animal invasions and encroaching bush.



Scott, an engineer by trade, runs the Tanda Tula lodge, in Timbavati near the Kruger Park, in northern South Africa. Right now it is operating on a skeleton staff as most of his 62 workers are taking leave; they were paid for April, but took a 15 per cent cut. For those left, their full time job is trimming back the fast growing bush and stopping the wild animals, that live in it, from taking over the resort.



“If you let a game lodge go you will never find it again!” laughs Scott. As speak on the telephone a pride of lions has just walked across his manicured lawn- six males and four lionesses, he says, before continuing with his story.



“What the few of us left have got to do is cut back the trees and make sure there is enough human activity around the camp. If there is then usually the animals stay on the periphery.”



Scott watched the lights go out at his game lodge in a few crazy days in March. The travel ban was declared on March 15 and the resort emptied. On that Sunday, 22 of the camp’s 24 tents were occupied by tourists from the United States, France and the United Kingdom. By the following Friday, nearly all the tourists had fled to the airport. On that evening, two British holiday makers remained rattling around in the huge dining room at the lodge.



“We got all the staff together and sat down and had dinner with them so they didn’t feel lonely,” says Scott.



“But to be honest, I think we were all trying to keep each other’s spirits up.”



For now Scott spends his days hacking at the bush, watching out for lions and waiting for the travel restrictions and lockdown to subside. Until it does there won’t be a tourist in sight in Timbavati and lions will be the fleeting kings of the lawn, as well as the forest.



Don Scott will be taking part in the CNBC Africa virtual panel discussion Business Tomorrow at 14 00 CAT on Channel 410 on Tuesday May 12. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

don scott

How COVID-19 led to wild animal invasions in Africa.

By Chris Bishop



A briefing by the World Health Organisation on the fight against COVID-19 also threw up a grim view of the future of the continent’s economy.



Stephen Karingi, Director of Regional trade and integration, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa said the economy of Africa would contract by as much as 3% in 2020. The UNEC calculated every month of lockdown cost the economy $65 billion.



“We are also seeing a reduction in export earnings because markets in the northern hemisphere are also closed. On top of that governments are collecting lower revenue because people aren’t working,” he says.



Karingi was also concerned about the number of poor people in the informal sector who were going hungry because of the COVID-19 lockdowns across the continent. He said 60% off Africans live in informal settlements, which is proving a problem.



“It becomes very difficult for them to be in lockdown. They have to get in the morning, go and work to get money and then have to go back out later to earn money for another meal. To make matters worse they have seen an increase in food prices in this lockdown. At least 87% say they are skipping a meal every day or eating less,” says Karingi.



“One person we surveyed said: ‘I don’t have a dollar and you want me to wear a mask that I can’t afford in the first place.’”



Yet Addis Ababa-based Karingi agreed that Africa, where 2,000 had died from COVID-19 by May 7, needed to make sure the infection rate is falling to reopen and not take risks.



On the other side of the COVID-19 coin, the Nairobi-based Amit Thakker, the Executive Chairman of Africa Health Business said at least 42 factories in Kenya 42 had put up machinery cleaned their machines and realigned them to make masks and sanitizers.

CROPPED-Stephen Karingi

If you want to earn money in Africa – worse is yet to come says UN.

By Chris Bishop



Fellow prisoners of the late struggle hero Denis Goldberg have told how he worked selflessly to brighten the lives and ease the pain of incarceration for his fellow inmates. Also how he nursed the lawyer Bram Fischer, who saved the Rivonia accused including Nelson Mandela from the noose, through his last painful days.



Goldberg died this week, aged 87, after a life in politics fighting for the betterment of others. It was a long and tireless career that saw him turn his engineering skills into making bombs for the military wing of the African National Congress. Twenty-two of those years of activism were spent in prison in Pretoria serving a life sentence for sabotage handed down at the Rivonia trial.



Sean Hosey, one of the so-called London recruits who helped the South African liberation struggle, spent five years in the same cell block as Goldberg in Pretoria in the late 1970s. He recalls how Goldberg fought a campaign for the prisoners to get newspapers.



“One of the cruellest apartheid prison policies was to deprive prisoners of all current news. No newspapers, news magazines, radio, or any source of current news. Family letters and visits were heavily censored, and not infrequently stopped. Prisoners had to cope with this for many years, with lasting psychological damage, which even now is not fully understood,” recalls Hosey.



“For a period of about 18 months, in 1976-77, Dennis masterminded a campaign to get this information into the public domain and to try to launch a legal challenge in the South African courts. He battled relentlessly to brief a lawyer on the matter, despite harassment, delaying tactics, and threats from the prison authorities. For a variety of reasons, it didn’t get to court, but it did lead to a considerable easement in news deprivation from about 1978. Many ‘politicals’ would be thankful for that.”



Former Pretoria political prisoners also recalled how Goldberg cared tirelessly for the man who had saved his neck in the Rivonia trial – lead counsel Bram Fischer. The authorities, many of whom saw the Afrikaner as a traitor for his part in defending Mandela and his comrades, treated Fischer harshly, even after he was diagnosed with cancer in 1974. Fischer was sentenced to life imprisonment, in 1966, on charges of furthering communism and attempting to overthrow the government. In prison the warders did him few favours.



“In the years I spent there, Bram Fischer was with us until one day he slipped and fell, fracturing the collar of his femur. He was left without treatment for fourteen days,” says former activist &nbsp;Alex Moumbaris, who spent over seven years in Pretoria prison.



Hosey recalled how Goldberg nursed Fischer through his final, painful, days. &nbsp;



“Denis and Bram had adjacent cells in Pretoria Central. Bram developed cancer during 1974. Eventually, he was given treatment, which apparently included radiation therapy. On a number of occasions, he was brought back to his cell in a dazed and confused state and left to his own devices under lock and key, with heavy consequences for his wellbeing,” says Hosey.



“Denis vociferously and consistently raised this with the senior prison officers and complained about Bram’s treatment. After weeks and months of this, Denis was allowed to help Bram overnight, after these treatments, which I know was a comfort to him. Although the vicious regime kept Bram in that cell until days before his death, I believe that Denis’s actions, in the face of threats to himself, helped Bram in his last days.”



On a lighter note, Hosey recalled how Goldberg, who was far from religious, used to see a Rabbi six times a year for what he called philosophical debates.



“However, a bonus to the visits was one of the rare treats that was permitted us – the annual ‘Passover Parcel’. This was a food hamper of appropriate Passover foodstuffs, all of it a delightful delicacy compared to our prison diet,” says Hosey. “Excitement would build for weeks with anticipation, because Denis shared everything the Rabbi brought with the rest of us. I never suggested to him that his ‘philosophical debates’ might have had an ulterior motive! But that was Denis, generous and always supportive of his comrades.”

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How kind struggle hero Denis Goldberg lit up dark days behind bars with the help of a Rabbi

By John Kufuor*



Africa entered this century with great expectations.&nbsp;Its entrepreneurial and political ambitions were growing.&nbsp; The international community was coalescing behind a new agenda of cooperation crystallised in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Unfortunately, with its profound health and economic challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic has created an immense barricade to these ambitions. Fulfilling Africa&#8217;s future agenda will require us to change the values our societies place on knowledge and expertise and the way we communicate and interact with one another.



<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.imperial.ac.uk_mrc-2Dglobal-2Dinfectious-2Ddisease-2Danalysis_covid-2D19_report-2D12-2Dglobal-2Dimpact-2Dcovid-2D19_&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=Ftw_YSVcGmqQBvrGwAZugGylNRkk-uER0-5bY94tjsc&amp;r=nx5b5kQLh41L8aL5r707mggTtSJQGyFCjkhVHxltaQg&amp;m=rmVUgP3ixI1b2SPHflH64bR6d_tJYgnPDXKIBjb5Fw4&amp;s=jRGVcKA_rJSs1bixVgpr_pnye5BjhwlugV9uKH0rEx8&amp;e=">Imperial College UK</a> analysis suggests there could be 40 million deaths worldwide from COVID-19 without mitigation and suppression measures. It predicts that some of the worst consequences of COVID-19 will be felt in lower-income countries.   Neither cure nor vaccine currently exist.  Protecting both life and livelihood will depend on how societies adapt and change.  Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.afdb.org_en_news-2Dand-2Devents_opinion-2Dpandemic-2Dno-2Dtime-2Dfiscal-2Ddistancing-2D35086&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=Ftw_YSVcGmqQBvrGwAZugGylNRkk-uER0-5bY94tjsc&amp;r=nx5b5kQLh41L8aL5r707mggTtSJQGyFCjkhVHxltaQg&amp;m=rmVUgP3ixI1b2SPHflH64bR6d_tJYgnPDXKIBjb5Fw4&amp;s=Ep6ZEm0f4-4md5XOXn4XHW8tQzCZ7B4o9WfzMRH8jZM&amp;e=">African Development Bank</a> estimates the virus could cost the continent a GDP loss of between US$22 billion and US$88 billion. 



The ability to avert the total collapse of Africa’s already fragile economies in the coming months will require intensive social distancing measures. However, we will only achieve the necessary behavioural change if people can trust the information they have access to.&nbsp; Our governments need to invest in trustworthy information and communication systems.&nbsp; This will not be easy, given the absence of a dynamic public interest media ecosystem which African citizens can turn to for trustworthy information.&nbsp;



By 2008, Ghana was home to an increasingly profitable private-sector driven media and communication sector. Liberalising media freedom and the opening up of the economy are among the proudest achievements of my eight-year presidency from 2001 to January 2009. Elsewhere across much of the continent, with the rise of promising economic development and an emergent independent media and telecommunication ecosystem, many African nations also began to embrace a new era of transparent and accountable governance.&nbsp;&nbsp;



However, of late regressive politics has taken hold of some countries, with ever more <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.mfwa.org_publication_freedom-2Dof-2Dexpression-2Dmonitor-2Dapril-2Djune-2D2019_&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=Ftw_YSVcGmqQBvrGwAZugGylNRkk-uER0-5bY94tjsc&amp;r=nx5b5kQLh41L8aL5r707mggTtSJQGyFCjkhVHxltaQg&amp;m=rmVUgP3ixI1b2SPHflH64bR6d_tJYgnPDXKIBjb5Fw4&amp;s=RZUU9stMX8V-_fvTZGfApUvgnveELyk465G7dpDGWaE&amp;e=">grim statistics</a> of journalists being killed or attacked. Independent media have been taken over by governments or factional actors. Altogether, we have made very little progress as a continent in reforming our state broadcasters into the kind of independent public service broadcasters that have been playing such a central role in informing people about the pandemic in countries, <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/coronavirus-leads-to-staggering-demand-for-trusted-tv-news/">such as the UK</a>.  



Across most of Africa, advertising has migrated wholesale from traditional broadcasters to new internet platforms and has undermined the financial viability of independent journalism.&nbsp; By comparison, online digital revenues across Africa are negligible, unlike old-fashioned media in industrialised countries where profitable digital operations are rapidly emerging.&nbsp;



These challenges were already serious; with the current crisis they have become existential. The <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk_risj-2Dreview_what-2Dwill-2Dcoronavirus-2Dpandemic-2Dmean-2Dbusiness-2Dnews&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=Ftw_YSVcGmqQBvrGwAZugGylNRkk-uER0-5bY94tjsc&amp;r=nx5b5kQLh41L8aL5r707mggTtSJQGyFCjkhVHxltaQg&amp;m=rmVUgP3ixI1b2SPHflH64bR6d_tJYgnPDXKIBjb5Fw4&amp;s=F3F0f3xznWDSjeJFzksFY2QqS7rAenlnlHJ5HZgcMWw&amp;e=">Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism</a> estimates that news organisations worldwide could lose more than US$20 billion through the decline in revenues brought about by the COVID-19 crisis.&nbsp; Throughout Africa, there are burgeoning reports from independent media organisations of revenues in precipitous decline.



COVID-19 is, as Dr Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, terms it, an “infodemic,” characterised by misinformation that can cripple the public response.&nbsp; But just as public demand and the need for trustworthy information is skyrocketing, the capacity to supply that information has never been more endangered.&nbsp;&nbsp;Moreover, the role of the media in a crisis like this is not just to inform; but hold governments to account for the effectiveness of their responses.



Well before COVID-19, I was arguing that Africa needs a clear, determined strategy to support public interest media.&nbsp; The pandemic illustrates the need more than ever.&nbsp; Thankfully, work is well under way on two potential solutions.



The first is the <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__luminategroup.com_ifpim&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=Ftw_YSVcGmqQBvrGwAZugGylNRkk-uER0-5bY94tjsc&amp;r=nx5b5kQLh41L8aL5r707mggTtSJQGyFCjkhVHxltaQg&amp;m=rmVUgP3ixI1b2SPHflH64bR6d_tJYgnPDXKIBjb5Fw4&amp;s=pdBWzIaUglefKH4XQchCuTzNnrkaLnK7hn8NnptQsyE&amp;e=">International Fund for Public Interest Media</a>, designed to channel international development and other philanthropic resources to independent media in resource-poor settings. An in-depth feasibility study detailing how the fund would work has been developed by <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.bbcmediaaction.org&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=Ftw_YSVcGmqQBvrGwAZugGylNRkk-uER0-5bY94tjsc&amp;r=nx5b5kQLh41L8aL5r707mggTtSJQGyFCjkhVHxltaQg&amp;m=rmVUgP3ixI1b2SPHflH64bR6d_tJYgnPDXKIBjb5Fw4&amp;s=G8Td7BBlr37YJFkkCpePBkaCYp3hwRpwVuCQvmT7dks&amp;e=">BBC Media Action</a>, the BBC’s media support charity with the backing of the <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.luminategroup.com&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=Ftw_YSVcGmqQBvrGwAZugGylNRkk-uER0-5bY94tjsc&amp;r=nx5b5kQLh41L8aL5r707mggTtSJQGyFCjkhVHxltaQg&amp;m=rmVUgP3ixI1b2SPHflH64bR6d_tJYgnPDXKIBjb5Fw4&amp;s=nlkaQDSqbCfby8JyfaT9RJDs4KeY_pcnB534gwh15iY&amp;e=">Luminate Group</a>.



The second initiative is a new African Public Interest Media Initiative which is developing a scalable, digital business model that incentivises African-generated public interest entertainment content.



The drivers of the two initiatives are helping to coordinate an emergency response to mitigate the immediate impact of the COVID-19 crisis on an already struggling free media sector. I urge Africa’s political leadership to give credible backing to both initiatives in partnership with OECD nations and other philanthropic entities.



*John A. Kufuor, the President of Ghana between 2001 and 2009, is focused on advancing leadership, governance and development across Africa through the John A. Kufuor Foundation.

John Kufuor

Op-Ed – John Kufuor: Africa faces the triple jeopardy of health, economic and informational crises

By Chris Bishop



One of the last of the band of brothers who stood in the dock with Nelson Mandela, in the shadow of noose, has died aged 87 after a life of trying to help others.



Denis Goldberg was one of the accused in the Rivonia trail where Mandela and his comrades faced charges of sabotage that carried the death penalty. Andrew Mlangeni, who will be 95 in June, is the sole survivor of those accused who were sentenced to life in 1964.



Goldberg trained as an engineer and could have made a comfortable living for himself, but was sickened to his guts by the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the wake of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 he joined the military wing of the African National Congress &#8211; Mhkonto Wesizwe where he trained recruits and because he was an engineer everyone assumed he could make bombs.



In the police raid on Liliesleaf farm in Rivonia, in Johannesburg, in 1963, detectives caught Goldberg reading a book at the end of a day trying to procure hand grenades for the sabotage campaign. The raid also collared the leading lights of the underground movement: Walter Sisulu; Ahmed Kathrada; Mlangeni and Govan Mbeki. It led to the famous trial in which Mandela and his comrades spent the best part of 27 years on Robben Island.



Goldberg was separated from his comrades, because he was white, and sent to a whites-only prison in Pretoria where he served 20 years in the same cell. The separation from those he had fought the struggle with hurt Goldberg deeply.



In 1984, Goldberg was released from prison and flew to Israel to be reunited with his wife Esme and daughter Hilary. He went to London to work for the ANC in exile.



In his retirement, Goldberg returned to the city of his birth &#8211; Cape Town. He built his own home among the fishing cottages of Hout Bay. He was energetic in retirement and spent the remainder of his days working for peace and the betterment of others.



Goldberg spent most of his life working for a political movement. Anyone who knew him will tell you he was his own man. When politics and the ruling party took a dismal turn in South Africa he was never afraid to speak out against the ill-advised actions of many of his former comrades.

One of the last of Mandela’s band of brothers is gone – freedom fighter Denis Goldberg  passes away.

By Chris Bishop



Kenneth Kaunda has seen it all in modern Zambia since he took the reins of power at the country’s birth in 1964 and celebrated his 96th birthday on April 28. Even then, I am sure he wasn’t prepared for the crazy days when he stood trial for allegedly sabotaging the very nation he fathered.



My mind went racing back to the colonial-style High Court in Lusaka, in 1998, with its Roman columns, &nbsp;sweeping drive and oval lawn at the front.



It is a trial neither of us will forget. In the dark of every Monday morning, for five months, I would leave home in Harare, not too long after midnight and drive with the crew to the Chirundu border. We would cross at day break and then drive hell-for-leather to Lusaka to catch the opening of proceedings at 9 AM – we would work all week end then drive back home arriving just before midnight on a Friday.



Kaunda, then a sprightly 74-year-old was arrested on Christmas Day 1997 and charged with assisting a failed coup months before, I also covered, that could have come from comic opera. On that summer’s day, a bunch of disgruntled, drunken, officers led a company of unwitting soldiers in storming ZNBC – the country’s TV channel. The soldiers &nbsp;smashed through the gates with armoured personnel carriers and many were soon dreaming of becoming the next &nbsp;minister of defence.



Their leader – calling himself &nbsp;Captain Solo more dramatic than his real name Captain Stephen Lungu – went on TV, clearly still under the influence, to threaten live executions on air. This power lasted as long as it takes to boil an egg. The rest of the Zambian army came down on ZNBC with a vengeance – an eye-witness told me the greatest difficulty they faced was winkling the comic opera warriors out of hiding in cupboards throughout the TV station.



I believe that Kaunda was as surprised as the rest of us by the coup, but that didn’t stop a beady-eyed government that – the year before – tried to strip the president of his citizenship. He was charged the world and its wife turned up at the High Court in Lusaka. At the time, we saw it as a clumsy attempt to kangaroo court Kaunda into jail and out of the political scene.



It was chaos on the first day of the trial. Outside, Kaunda supporters, from his party UNIP, sang songs and gave the party two-fingered victory salute.



“Veeeee!,” they shouted as we hurried up the long flight of steps and through the big wooden doors. Inside there were more journalists than police outside. A couple of guys broke court regulations to bring cameras inside and interviewed Kaunda in the dock.



“These are frightened little men trying to hurt me!” says Kaunda more than once in the interview. He had grown a big white beard in protest at his incarceration and looked a bit like &nbsp;Father Christmas.



As the hearing drew to a close on the first day, it was pandemonium. Police realised that the TV interview had been done in the dock they chased down the fleeing crews outside the court and tried to snatch their tapes. A cornered CNN camerawoman poked a Zambian policeman in the eyes with both fingers – kung fu style – before fleeing to the safety of the nearby US Embassy.



That night the Kaunda interview ran on thousands of television bulletins around the world. By breakfast time the next day, the police and army were hopping mad.



So it was, next morning, I had to rub my eyes when I arrived at court. Barbed wire had been thrown around the building, there were armoured vehicles parked outside. Everywhere there seemed to be police armed to the teeth. On the roof stood a line of soldiers with their rifles cocked; outside there was one journalist – me.



Yet inside an even bigger shock waited. There were airport security metal detectors and as I came through there were the head of police and the head of intelligence – a shaven-headed hulk of a man by the name of Xavier Chungu &#8211; waiting for me. I had said not a word before the two advanced towards me jabbing their fingers towards my head.



“You try to speak to that old man today and you will be severely man handled!” shouted the police chief as he snatched my notebook and started leafing through it.



“Yes, I can take you for a ride, you know what that means,” snarled Chungu. From my second year intermediate knowledge of state thuggery that meant a ride in the boot of a car followed by a beating at the end of it.



“Welcome to Zambia the warm heart of Africa!” was my sarcastic reply, with a smile, but I was angry.



What ensued was five months of argument. The judges acquitted Kaunda and there followed one of the biggest and most euphoric celebrations I have ever seen outside an African court. I can still see the lawyers for Kaunda – dressed in wigs and gowns – leaning out of the top windows of the building holding their fingers in the V for victory sign to the cheering crowds below.



A victory lap around Lusaka by the bearded Kaunda followed and was reported around the world with the narrative of an old man defiant and victorious over questionable politicians.At the time, we journalists joked : Kaunda 1 Government 0. &nbsp;



Twenty- two years on former President Frederick Chiluba and many of his ministers who oversaw the prosecution have passed on, so has the ill-fated Captain Solo.



The shaven-headed Chungu fell afoul of the authorities in Lusaka and was on the run &nbsp;for a while, before pitching&nbsp; up, surprisingly , in politics in the Democratic Republic of Congo &nbsp;in the 2019 elections. The head of police is presumably enjoying his pension.



Whereas Kaunda is still going strong with his peace work, powerful &nbsp;constitution, and famous sense of humour.



When I finally go to interview Kaunda on that memorable day, the last question I asked him, in jest, was why he was looking more like Father Christmas than an ex-African president. He laughed and beamed.



“Chris, Father Christmas, is that not a noble person to be?”



It probably is KK. Happy 96th birthday and thanks for the memory. &nbsp;

FS_Kenneth Kaunda_28-04-20202

How Kenneth Kaunda went on trial for sabotage-days of  chaos, soldiers and threats.

By Chris Bishop



More than 10,000 companies with hundreds of thousands of workers in South Africa missed out on millions because they couldn&#8217;t fill their application forms properly for Unemployment Insurance Fund relief.



Around 103,000 companies, representing 1.35 million workers, applied to the UIF fund in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown. Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, the tourism minister and chairperson of the government economic cluster on COVID-19, said 69,000 applications were processed and 862,000 workers will get money -about a third of their pay -from the UIF.



&#8220;Yet 10,000 applications were filled in with incorrect statements making it impossible for the forms to be processed,&#8221; Kubayi-Ngubane told a media briefing.



&#8220;We have contacted the companies and will give them another chance to refile their applications correctly.&#8221;



South Africa is set to ease its strict lock down regulations from midnight on April 30. Certain businesses will be able to operate again, the precious metals mines will be free to ramp up to 50% of production yet restaurants and bars will stay closed. Gatherings of more than 10 people will not be allowed.



The government briefing said that the South African government expected the COVID-19 outbreak to peak in September.

Clarification on COVID-19 “hotspots” as SA moves to level 3 lockdown

How 10,000 COVID-19 hit companies blundered and missed out on millions

Our combined fiscal and policy measures are above R800 billion, says Tito Mboweni SA finance minister that will be rapidly rolled out.



&#8220;Time is of the essence&#8217;, says Mboweni.



Government unveils a package of tax relief and welfare measures to ease the economic pain of COVID-19. 



Mboweni said the government would pour billions of Rand into social security payments along with a raft of tax relief measures to help companies with their cash flow.



VAT returns would be fast tracked, says Mboweni, there would be a holiday on the skills development levy; deferments on tax payments; a deferment of the new carbon tax until October 31; a number of other corporate taxes outlined in the budget will be put on hold.



Mboweni also said billions would be poured into the social security system to help poor South Africans. There would be R50 billion put into the system it can pay everyone more for everything from child support to care givers.



The finance minister said the government was tightening its fiscal belt to ensure it had the money to help South Africa weather COVID-19.



&#8220;We have looked at the budget and anything that can be postponed will be postponed. We are putting all the money we can into resolving this crisis,&#8221; says Mboweni.

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - MARCH 16: Finance minister, Tito Mboweni briefs the media on the details of government interventions in various sectors of the departmental portfolios on COVID-19 at DIRCO Media Centre.

106468131-1585649490275gettyimages-1207457483

COVID-19: Mboweni says SA government to put R800 billion to help ease pandemic

By Chris Bishop



More than half of the billion Rand fund put up by the billionaire Oppenheimer family has been lent to thousands of small businesses in just 11 days in a bid to help them weather the COIVD -19 storm, that threatens to wreck the South African economy. &nbsp;



The Oppenheimer family – that made a fortune over the last century in mining &nbsp;– was one of the first of the big family names in South African business to come forward with a relief fund when South Africa declared a state of disaster in March. It is called the South African Future Trust and it saw tens of thousands of applications from cash-strapped businesses within days..



Interest free loans worth R638 million have been disbursed, through the banks, to 5,800 small businesses. It will ensure that 55,000 employees of these companies can expect money at the end of this month in which South African business has been all but shut by the lockdown.



The Oppenheimers are trying to call their contacts to increase the billion Rand fund. Jonathan and his father Nick Oppenheimer managed to raise R40 million more for the fund by ringing around over the Easter weekend. A statement, on April 23, said those pledges had now increased to R120 million that will enable the fund to support an extra 10,000 workers. 



“We are immensely grateful to those who have already joined the Oppenheimer family in contributing to SAFT,” says the family in the statement.

_BBP7566

COVID-19 :African Billionaire family lends more than half a billion in 11 days to stop small businesses being swept away.

By: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elliot-smith/">Elliot Smith</a>



 KEY POINTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>South Africa now has no investment-grade sovereign credit rating from any of the major ratings agencies for the first time since its return to global markets in 1994.</li><li>Moody’s announced on Friday that it had cut the country’s last investment-grade rating to “junk,” sending the Rand to an all-time low of below 18 to the dollar.</li><li>Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has&nbsp;announced the creation of a unit within the finance ministry to focus on structural reform in a bid to fundamentally reshape the South African economy.</li></ul>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



South Africa has lost its last remaining major investment-grade sovereign credit rating, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/04/next-budget-moves-will-make-or-break-south-african-economy.html">existing economic weakness</a>&nbsp;is compounded by the potential impact of the global coronavirus pandemic.



South Africa has no investment-grade sovereign credit rating from any of the major ratings agencies for the first time since its return to global markets in 1994.



Moody’s announced on Friday that it had cut the country’s last investment-grade rating to “junk,” sending the Rand to an all-time low of below 18 to the dollar. Standard &amp; Poors and Fitch both downgraded Africa’s most industrialized economy to sub-investment grade in 2017.



In its release, Moody’s cited structurally weak growth, limited capacity to stimulate the economy and an “inexorable rise” in government debt over the medium term as key reasons for the downgrade and maintenance of its “negative” outlook.


<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="349" src="https://player.cnbc.com/p/gZWlPC/cnbc_global?playertype=synd&amp;byGuid=7000103807" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen=""></iframe>


The situation has been exacerbated by the expected economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Confirmed cases in South Africa have now exceeded 1,300, though the government is hoping that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/24/south-africa-deploys-police-and-army-for-3-week-coronavirus-lockdown.html">drastic early lockdown measures</a>&nbsp;will prevent the exponential spread seen in Europe and the U.S.



“Unreliable electricity supply, persistent weak business confidence and investment as well as long-standing structural labour market rigidities continue to constrain South Africa’s economic growth,” Moody’s said, adding that these factors mean South Africa is entering a period of much lower global growth in an “economically vulnerable position.”



Debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) increased by 10 percentage points from 2014-18 and Moody’s expects this to rise by a further 22 percentage points between 2019 and 2023, with the deficit widening in 2020 to around 8.5% of GDP.



Fiscal strains from interest payments and support to state-owned enterprises will continue, the agency predicted. The government debt burden is expected to rise from 69% of GDP in 2019 to 91% by the end of 2023.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">‘It is up to South Africa’</h2>



“South Africa’s credit rating has deteriorated because of very low (and currently negative) economic growth, large fiscal deficits and sharply rising public debt, loss-making state-owned entities, and deep contestation of proposed social and economic policy reforms,” explained Jeff Gable, head of research at South Africa’s Absa Bank.



In a statement Monday, Gable suggested that whether South Africa will return to investment grade or slide further away relies on the country demonstrating “significant improvement” in its economic reforms.



“It is hard to argue that South Africa hasn’t witnessed a steep deterioration in fundamentals, in part by our own inability to act over the last decade and in part due to the new risks due to the global virus,” Gable said.



“And so it is the agencies’ duty to reflect that in their ratings. Similarly it is clear that it is up to South Africa, and not the credit rating agencies, as to which direction that country would like to take going forward.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bold structural reforms</h2>



On Sunday, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Lesetja Kganyago held a media conference call, in which Mboweni said that he and President Cyril Ramaphosa had vowed to move “more boldly” on their structural reforms program.



Mboweni announced the creation of a unit within the finance ministry called “Vulindlela” – which means “lead the way” in isiZulu – that “will become the front soldiers of structural reforms in the South African economy,” according to a research note Monday from NKC African Economics.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/105500770-1539253589126gettyimages-909184932.jpeg?v=1539253774&amp;w=678&amp;h=381" alt="GP: Pre-WEF breakfast briefing ahead of Davos 181011 Asia "/><figcaption> President Cyril Ramaphosa during a pre-World Economic Forum breakfast briefing on January 18, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa.&nbsp;Moeletsi Mabe| Sunday Times | Gallo Images | Getty Images </figcaption></figure>



The finance minister also suggested in an interview with newspaper&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://city-press.news24.com/News/no-time-for-ideology-if-not-imf-then-give-me-the-money-mboweni-after-lockdown-junk-status-batters-sa-20200329" target="_blank">City Press</a>&nbsp;over the weekend that the World Bank, and not the IMF (International Monetary Fund), would be the first port of call for loan financing.



“The World Bank, unlike the IMF, does not typically attach conditions to its loans. This is why it will be a more politically palatable action for the government in South Africa, where public opinion is generally suspicious of the IMF and the effects its policy prescriptions have had in poor countries,” NKC Senior Political Economist Francois Conradie said Monday.



However, Conradie suggested that the types of reforms which will address the issues that led to Moody’s downgrade, such as deep cuts to the public sector wage bill, privatizing state-owned enterprises (SOEs), or relaxing strict labor legislation, will be a hard political sell.



“Government has been good, in recent weeks, in communicating its response to the pandemic by explaining how the lockdown works, but now it will have to be clear in communicating its economic policy response as well,” he added.

South Africa looks to structural reforms as it loses its last investment-grade credit rating

The following is a media statement on behalf of South Africa&#8217;s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy:



REMARKS BY MINISTER
OF MINERAL RESOURCES AND ENERGY, MR GWEDE MANTASHE UNPACKING MINERAL AND ENERGY
INDUSTRIES’ RESPONSE IN PREPARATION FOR A NATIONWIDE LOCKDOWN, 25 MARCH 2020



The Department of Mineral
Resources and Energy yesterday met key stakeholders in the mining and energy
industries to consolidate plans to deal with the spread of Covid-19. This is in
support of the decisive action by the President of the Republic, HE Cyril
Ramaphosa, to institute a nationwide lockdown from 23:59pm on Thursday 26th
March 2020. 



Working together with the South
African Petroleum Industry Association, the Minerals Council SA and in
consultation with labour unions, we have developed a framework through which
these industries will implement the envisaged directives. 



This is being done in order to
safeguard the lives of people, while ensuring that the limited economic
activity which will be undertaken during this period is supported. 



In all our undertakings, we are
considering the health, security as well as socio-economic impact of COVID-19
on these industries. The industries will be required to prioritise the health
and safety of employees, suppliers, contractors and other relevant personnel. 



While demand is expected to
decline in the period ahead, as a result of restrictions on economic activity,
security of energy supply remains critical. The supply of fuel to the relevant
critical and essential services, as well as the supply of coal to Eskom for
electricity supply and liquid fuels production, are critical during this
period. 



We are mindful that in some
mining operations and processing plants a complete shutdown will not be
feasible, as a restart from scratch may be too costly. This would negatively
affect security of supply, and therefore the economy as a whole. 



We are adopting a risk-based
approach, with worst-case scenario planning, and all companies are required to
ensure that their business continuity plans are fit for purpose.



Broadly, the following are
measures being proposed for implementation:



MINING



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Mining operations will be scaled down significantly, particularly deep level mining, which is labour intensive.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Essential services supporting the sector, including security and related infrastructure, maintenance, water pumping, refrigeration and ventilation will continue. </li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Mines supplying coal to Eskom will remain in operation, albeit at reduced production levels. </li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>For exports, each case will be evaluated on its merits.  </li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Services being rendered to communities, such as the supply of water, will continue.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Production in the gold, chrome, manganese and other sectors will be scaled down; while the processing of surface material in the PGMs sector will continue for the production of – among others medical products. This will allow smelters, which cannot be switched on and off abruptly, to remain operational.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>In order to contain the spread of COVID-19, travel will be restricted, in line with regulations to be outlined by the Minister of COGTA.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The Minerals Council has committed to avail its health infrastructure &#8211; facilities and staff – during the lockdown, to support Government efforts. </li></ul>



ENERGY



The following activities are
among those which will be considered an essential service:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The production and distribution of petroleum products, including fuel, paraffin and liquefied petroleum gas. This entails shipping, manufacturing, terminals, distribution and retail.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>In the case of petroleum products, imports will be scaled back for the duration of the lockdown, as there will be excess capacity</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Regulatory oversight on nuclear facilities, as well as nuclear safeguard inspections.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Production and supply of nuclear medicines and chemicals used at refineries.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The Safari-1 research reactor and support technical services.</li></ul>



Engagements are ongoing between
the sectors, the relevant government departments and state-owned entities. We
will continue to provide updates as the situation unfolds.



Thank you.



Issued
by Government Communication (GCIS) on behalf of the Department of Mineral
Resources and Energy 



25 March 2020



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>

Mining to be scaled down during South Africa’s 21-day lockdown

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African power utility Eskom said on Wednesday that coal stocks at its power stations were healthy, with at least 20 days of supplies at all stations, before a nationwide lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak starting at midnight on Thursday. 



Eskom said all its activities were considered “essential services” under labour law and that it would apply for an exemption from the 21-day lockdown for critical staff. It has asked coal miners, coal transporters and freight company Transnet to continue coal supply operations during the lockdown. 



(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo)



This article was first published on Reuters Africa <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFKBN21C16B-OZABS">https://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFKBN21C16B-OZABS</a> and is republished with its permission.

Eskom says coal stocks healthy ahead of South Africa’s lockdown

MAPUTO (Reuters) &#8211; Militant group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack in northern Mozambique just south of the site of gas projects worth $60 billion being developed by the likes of Exxon Mobil and Total. 



Insurgents attacked the town of Mocimboa da Praia on Monday, briefly occupying some areas and its army barracks before being pushed out on Tuesday, Mozambique authorities and security analysts said. 



Islamic State claimed the attack through its Amaq news agency, which said dozens of soldiers and police officers had been killed or injured. The government has not provided a figure of dead or injured. 



“Military sources told Amaq that Islamic State fighters attacked five army and police barracks in the town,” the agency said in Tuesday’s report, adding that weapons, ammunition and other equipment had also been seized. 



Government spokesman Filimao Suaze said the retreating attackers had left a “trail of destruction and dead bodies”, and that security had been beefed up in the area. 



While Islamic State has claimed a spate of recent attacks in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, home to the gas developments following one of the biggest gas finds in a decade off its coast, Tuesday’s claim of responsibility is the first matched by rare official confirmation of an attack. 



The government does not acknowledge such claims, however. 



Mocimboa da Praia, 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the gas projects, previously served as the main airport for international workers flying into the developments and its port is used for cargo deliveries. 



Exxon and Total did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment sent outside usual business hours. 



NGOs say the government must do more to protect the mostly poor civilians in the area and step up transparency. 



“This violent escalation in Mocimboa da Praia is the culmination of a tragic failure by the Mozambican government to protect the people in this volatile area,” said Muleya Mwananyanda, rights group Amnesty’s deputy director for east and southern Africa.



“For almost three years, armed groups have been attacking villagers around Cabo Delgado, causing untold human suffering without being held accountable.” 



The organisation said about 350 people have been killed since 2017, but many estimate a much higher figure. More than 900 people have been reported killed, says a non-government body, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project. 



(Reporting by Manuel Mucari in Maputo and Emma Rumney in Johannesburg; Additional reporting by Nayera Abdallah in Cairo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)



This article was first published on Reuters Africa <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN21C0TY-OZATP">https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN21C0TY-OZATP</a> and is republished with its permission.

Islamic State claims Mozambique attack close to gas projects

MINISTRY



&nbsp;SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT&nbsp;



REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA



Private Bag X274, PRETORIA, 0001, the dti Campus, 77
Meintjies Street, Sunnyside PRETORIA Tel: (012) 394 5535/1813&nbsp;



Private Bag X9047, CAPE TOWN, 8000, Tel: (021) 464 2980,
Fax: (021) 461 2480&nbsp;



Media Statement



For Immediate Release&nbsp;



24 March 2020&nbsp;



STATEMENT BY MINISTER NTSHAVHENI ON GOVERNMENT MEASURES
FOR SMMEs IN RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC&nbsp;



The President on the 23rd of March 2020 announced that
there will be a nation-wide lockdown for 21 Days with effect from the 26th of
March 2020, at midnight. The lockdown is enacted in accordance with the
Disaster Management Act. As a result, all shops and businesses will be closed,
with the exception of pharmacies, laboratories, banks, essential financial and
payment services, supermarkets, petrol stations and healthcare providers.&nbsp;



The impact of COVID-19 on SMMEs has been prevalent long
before the announcement of the State of National Disaster by the President, and
will worsen owing to the lockdown which was announced in effort to curb the
spread of the virus. SMMEs and the Informal Sector will be affected on a
multifront, and the government continues to announce multiple interventions to
alleviate the economic impact of COVID-19 against SMMEs and the Informal
Sector.&nbsp;



Minister Ntshavheni would like to extend a word of
appreciation to all donors who have committed to assist SMMEs during this
period, with a special note of gratitude to the Rupert and Oppenheimer families
for their commitment of R1 billion each. The monies are intended provide relief
to SMMEs and their employees that are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;



The Department of Small Business Development has
introduced three intervention measures to support SMMEs affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic. These are the Business Growth and Resilience Facility, SMME
Relief Finance Scheme and Sefa-Debt Restructuring Facility.&nbsp;



The Business Growth and Resilience Facility is targeted
at SMMEs who locally manufacture or supply hygiene and medical products that
are in demand in order to curb and manage the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
These are products such as sanitizers, detergents and tissue paper. This
facility will offer working capital, stock, bridging finance, order finance and
equipment finance. The funding amount will be based on the funding needs of the
actual business.



The SMME Relief Finance Facility will provide soft-loan
funding for existing businesses in distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
relief will be for a period of 6 months, from 01 April 2020. In an instance
where SMMEs will require assistance for longer than 6 months, the term may be
extended dependent on their needs. Separate and tailor-made Facilities are
being finalized for the Informal Sector, Spaza Shops and the Self-Employed.
These will be announced on Friday, 27 March 2020.



Key to the qualifying criteria for the Business Growth
and Resilience Facility and the SMME Relief Finance Scheme is that the entities
must be 100% South African owned, 70% of their employees must be South African,
and the entities must be registered and be compliant with SARS. In the instance
that an SMME is not compliant, they will be assisted with the compliance
process before their applications can be considered.&nbsp;



The Sefa-Debt Restructuring Facility is geared towards
sefa-funded SMMEs that are negatively affected by the pandemic. A payment
moratorium/ holiday will be given to the qualifying SMMEs for a period of a
maximum of 6 months, in efforts to reduce the installment burden of loan
obligations on the affected SMMEs. These SMMEs will be required to illustrate
the direct linkage of their business distress to the pandemic.&nbsp;



The SMME South Africa platform (<a href="http://www.smmesa.gov.za">www.smmesa.gov.za</a>) was created in
partnership with Telkom SA, and will serve as a gateway for SMMEs to apply for
both financial and non-financial support, access information about business
opportunities and market access support during the pandemic, and beyond.&nbsp;



The Department would like to caution members of the
public against the consumption and circulation of false information not
originating from the Department’s official communication channels.&nbsp;



//End …&nbsp;



Issued by the Ministry of Small Business Development

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