First Take SA

Thomas Thabane has announced he will step down as prime minister of Lesotho following months of pressure after he was named as a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife. He did not say when he would leave office but his party said a new premier would be sworn in. Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro has now been nominated as the incoming Prime Minister.

Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga is expected to address the nation today about preparations for the reopening of schools. This follows a special meeting of the Council of Education Ministers on Monday, which included the Minister together with the nine provincial education MECs. There are suggestions that schools operate at fifty percent capacity with rearranged timetables in order to allow different grades to attend classes on different days of the week or in alternate weeks. Meanwhile, teachers unions have been insisting that the health and safety of their members and that of the learners needs to be guaranteed before the education department considers the reopening of schools.

Scientists and researchers say with the large number of fatalities linked to COVID-19, they are coming under increasing pressure to develop a vaccine. As today marks World AIDS Vaccine Day, doctors say while efforts are still underway to create a vaccine for HIV and AIDS, there is great optimism that a vaccine will be made available for COVID-19 within a few years.

The government has so far approved 15-thousand applications from farmers seeking financial assistance during the lock-down. Most of the applications come from the Eastern Cape followed by the Northern Cape and North West. Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister, Thoko Didiza, announced the outcome of the Covid-19 Agricultural Disaster Fund application process in Pretoria

Business organization, Sakeliga, has launched a court case in a bid to have some of government's Covid-19 lockdown regulations amended. The organisation says the litigation seeks to restore the right for businesses to trade without state-issued permits, irrespective of the lockdown level. It wants the court to order that law-enforcement may not obstruct businesses in this regard.

19,000 prisoners are expected to be released soon, from 240 centres across the country. Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he was releasing 19,000 prisoners to curb the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and ease overcrowding. The parole only applies to low-risk prisoners who would have applied for parole in the last five years.

The Democratic Alliance has vowed to challenge the restrictions of the national lockdown in court in a bid to force government to open up the economy further. The party intends to file papers in the high court, questioning the rationality of three separate lockdown-related issues, namely the night curfew, the ban on e-commerce or online shopping, as well as the restriction on exercise hours. This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa's address to the nation on Wednesday night in which he announced the continuation of level four restrictions for the rest of the month, while consultations with social stakeholders take place.

For the first time in 75 years, the Comrades Marathon has had to be cancelled - because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Athletics South Africa, together with the other stakeholders involved in organising the event, took a decision to prioritise the health and safety of everyone that would have been participating in the Ultimate Human Race. The race that was scheduled to be run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on the 14th of June, was first postponed in April, with the hope of staging it before the end of September. But with the Covid-19 pandemic not showing any signs of abating, the organisers had no option but to cancel the race.

The International Labour Organization says COVID-19 has become more than a health pandemic -- it is now a socio-economic pandemic. This as millions of workers here at home and around the world are out of work and struggling to make ends meet

We need to cautiously ahead and the president has to balance the risk of the economy and lives. He is also right on the phasing out of the lockdown as we cannot economically afford to be on lock down forever.