The Weekend View

The state of the North West provincial capital, Mahikeng, continues to deteriorate as the existing infrastructure is not being maintained and new ones are not built. The town also continues to slide into a state of decay and cannot not attract potential investors as most provincial capitals would. Sellwane Khakhau compiled this report ….

45 Chinese cities are either under complete lockdown or partial lockdown.Shanghai with a population of 25 million is one of those cities reported to be hardest hit with new daily record infections of Covid-19 being reported on a regular basis.

South African couple Elmien and Wesley Gerber are caught in the hard lockdown of Shanghai in China.

As a water-scarce country, South Africa is facing many complex water problems and studies have shown that the country will not have enough water supplies to meet demand by 2025. Challenges affecting our water include the amount available, the unequal distribution and access to clean water, the quality and state of water infrastructure, droughts causing towns to run dry and corruption that has affected municipal treatment plants, resulting in sewage flows into streets, rivers and groundwater. Vast areas in the rural parts of North West, Limpopo and Free State provinces and urban areas like Hammanskraal, Makhanda, Grabouw and Kimberley have perennial water issues that have left residents on an unending scramble for reliable and clean water. Despite these longstanding problems on access to clean drinking water, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu, speaking on Tuesday at this year's commemoration of Water Week, was adamant that the country has no water crisis but a lack of efficient management and skills to effectively run the available water resources.

Operation Dudula's launch in Kwazulu-Natal has been postponed. This comes as reports emerged LAST NIGHT that the meeting had NOT been sanctioned by police...  The postponement comes at the back of the City of Ethekwini raising concern about possible violence that may arise during the launch. It's leader Nhlanhla Lux Dlamini is behind bars facing charges of house breaking, theft and malicious damage to property after Soweto resident Victor Rame-rafe's home was allegedly ransacked by Operation Dudula members last Sunday. Many commentators including Labour Analyst Terry Bell say the activities of groups like Dudula, which is also against the employment of undocumented foreign nationals, are gaining ground because of police not doing their jobs in fighting crime.

Civil society group, Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia will THIS MORNING hold a march against what they call Xenophobia after being initially denied by the police. The group had planned to demonstrate on Human Rights Day this past Monday. However this was stopped by the Johannesburg Metro Police after threats by Operation Dudula members. The anti xenophobia group had to turn to High Court to overtun the prohibition of the march.

Fraud prevention experts have warned that consumers need an extra layer of protection on their identity against criminals who will turn their lives upside down without a second thought. They say over the past two years, South African companies have been victims of cyber attacks and data breaches and its growing daily. They say Protective Registration is just one of the effective ways to safe guard your identity and personal information against fraud arising from cyber attacks. In the latest attack... Transunion was compromised by a hacker group.... demandin g a ransom of R225 million rand or face the personal details of some 54 million south africans being  compromised.

Tshegofatso Pule's family says there is no sentence that can bring her back to life.   Ntuthuko Shoba the father of her unborn baby -- was found guilty of premeditated murder in the Johannesburg High Court YESTERDAY. In handing down his verdict, Acting Judge Stuart Wilson said phone calls Shoba made to Muzi Malepane was for no other reason than to arrange Pule's killing.

David Ansara, the Chief Operating Officer at the Centre for Risk Analysis

Rob Rose, the editor of the influencial Financial Mail 

The City of Tshwane says it will take on review the decision by the local government bargaining council to reinstate over 600 waste management workers whose contacts were not renewed in 2020. The workers say they were promised they would be made permanent after 12 months, but the city didn't follow through. The council found that the city dismissed the workers unfairly and ordered their reinstatement as well as back pay salaries for eleven months, at one hundred and fifteen thousand rand per worker.

Sex  workers may be operating freely in South Africa in the near future. This as the Deputy-Minister of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is expected hold consultative meetings on the issue of decriminalisation of sex-work in South Africa. The Commission for Gender Equality has welcomed the decision and says this step marks a significant progress towards exploring the possibility of the decriminalization of sex work and sex workers.  The Commission says the continued criminalisation and prohibitionist legal framework has sanctioned sex-workers and sex-work as criminal goes against the human rights of sex-workers