South Africa’s top stories this week
As President Ramaphosa recovers from Covid-19, former president Jacob Zuma has been granted leave to appeal, and Covid-19 contact tracing and isolation protocols have changed. More on these stories here.
South Africa stops tracing, quarantining of Covid contacts
The Department of Health on Thursday published revisions to contact tracing, quarantine and isolation protocols.
After receiving recommendations from the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, the Department of Health has decided to stop contact tracing and quarantining for contacts of confirmed cases of Covid-19, with immediate effect.
With regards to the quarantining protocols, all quarantine is to be stopped with immediate effect for both vaccinated and unvaccinated contacts of confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Ramaphosa recovers from Covid-19
President Cyril Ramaphosa has returned to his duties, ending a week of self-isolation after recovering from Covid-19, on December 20.
Ramaphosa was treated for mild symptoms after he had tested positive for Covid-19 on December 12.
Hlaudi Motsoeneng to appeal ‘outlandish’ R11m pay back ruling
Former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng has signalled his intention to appeal a court ruling ordering him to pay back the public broadcaster R11.5m.
Motsoeneng says he has ‘never stolen any cent from the SABC’ and finds the court’s findings ‘inaccurate’ and ‘misleading’.
Covid-19 taxi relief support fund ready for disbursement
The Department of Transport has partnered with the National Empowerment Fund to begin the disbursement of taxi relief funds.
In July 2020, Parliament allocated over R1b for a taxi relief fund, to be distributed as a once-off payment to taxi operators, to counter the devastating effects of Covid-19 on the industry.
Zuma back in court to appeal against order to return to jail
Jacob Zuma and the Department of Correctional Services have been granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal against the ruling handed down by the Pretoria High Court last week, which ordered the former president back to prison.
In his papers, Zuma’s lawyers insisted there were ‘overwhelmingly good prospects of success’ and likened sending the former president back to prison to sentencing him to death.
Lebombo border now open 24/7 for trucks
Home Affairs announced that the Lebombo Border Post will continue operating for 24-hours a day for truck drivers only, until January 10, as a temporary solution to ease the truck congestion towards Mozambique during the festive season.
IOD patients could pay the price for proposed legislation changes
The results of a survey conducted by the South African Medical Association indicate there is a significant risk that doctors will have no choice but to opt out of treating workers injured on duty if the Compensation Fund proceeds with recently published regulations.
The regulations, gazetted on October 19 and open for public comment, will force doctors to deal directly with the Compensation Fund to be paid for treating injuries on duty (IOD).
Currently, doctors and other medical service providers use third party pre-funders or administrators due to the fund’s chronic dysfunctionality and the high risk of non-payment of invoices. Read more by clicking here.
