Last week we spoke to the DA in the North West, who has called on the provincial health department to desist from placing patients under what it says is forceful isolation. According to the party, patients have been forcefully isolated at the Klerksdorp Tshepong Hospital while awaiting their COVID-19 test results. We spoke to Gavin Edwards who is DA’s Provincial Spokesperson for Social Development and Health. Let’s take a listen… [Sound Clip]

Guest: Madoda Sambatha- MEC for health in the North West

Rights group Equal Education says they want a detailed plan on feeding schemes at schools during the lockdown. The Group has called on the Department of Basic Education to put in place clear interventions to ensure children who receive meals at school continue to do so. They say relief programmes such as Solidarity fund can also ensure equitable distribution of food.
Guest: Equal Education general secretary, Noncedo Madubedube

A Cuban Medical Brigade is in South Africa to assist the country in the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 virus. More than 200 health workers from the Central American country landed this morning at the Waterkloof Airforce Base in Pretoria before heading to a quarantine facility.
Guest: Bongani Masuku - A member of Cosatu's secretariat and also the union's former Secretary for International Relations

According to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), it’s important to ensure that students receive their allowances during the Covid-19 pandemic So that they can sustain themselves, continue with academic activities online, as well as to pay for learning materials. It is for this reason that NSFAS has activated a business continuity plan to facilitate uninterrupted funding to students, resolution of student applications queries, processing of appeals and general assistance to institutions with NSFAS administration during this period.
Guest: Dr Randall Carolissen- NSFAS Administrator

Today being National Freedom Day, we look at how Covid19 has unwittingly exposed the real state of the so called triple challenges in South Africa. COVID-19 has exposed levels of inequality where families in informal settlements can hardly self-isolate, compared to those in affluent areas where several people can self-isolate in spacious rooms in a single house. The battle for food parcels is also a typical example of the real situation on the ground where Operation Hunger says a different category of beneficiaries dubbed the missing middle are coming through as new entrants since the lockdown began.
Guest: Sandy Bukula, Interim CEO @ Operation Hunger

A lot of people have been asking different questions i.e what is the criteria for Covid19 testing – what kind of questions are being asked by health workers and are there enough tests kits to test everyone in South Africa for Covid19?
Guest: Prof Ian Sanne, CEO of Right to Care

Labour and Employment Minister, Thulas Nxesi says certain companies are deducting UIF from employees' salaries without paying it to the Unemployment Insurance Fund. He was briefing the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour and the Select Committee on Trade and Industry yesterday. He says some employers are refusing to comply with the lockdown regulations pertaining to the payment of UIF for employees. In the same breath many of you - our listeners, have been complaining about not receiving your UIF payment which you applied for before this pandemic and others say they are unable to access their UIF due to their employers who did not register for UIF. So what happens in this case?
Guest: Teboho Maruping, who is the Commissioner of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF)

The South African National AIDS Council (Sanac) has made a call for HIV and TB screening to be incorporated into the testing and screening for COVID-19. Sanac says it does not want to see a reversal of progress made in the country’s HIV and TB response due to the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.
Guest: Dr Sandile Buthelezi- CEO of The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC)

Today, KwaZulu Natal MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Nomusa Dube-Ncube embarked on more unannounced visits and raids as part of efforts aimed at protecting consumers against food price hikes during the lockdown period. The MEC said that she’s particularly concerned about yesterday’s raid in the Durban Central Business District in which counterfeit goods were confiscated with more than R100 000 cash. The counterfeit products seized included fake medication such as Grandpa, condoms and cigarettes.
Guest: Nomusa Dube-Ncube -KwaZulu Natal MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs

The Department of Economic Development in the City of Johannesburg has announced Phase Two of the issuing of temporary permits for informal traders. Last month the department suspended the issuing of permits after a large crowd descended on its offices in the Johannesburg CBD, compromising the safety and social distancing lockdown regulation.
Guest: Nthatisi Modingoane- Spokesperson for the City of Johannesburg