Day: April 11, 2022

South Africa has administered 34 146 981 vaccine doses with 5 845 administered in the last 24 hours.

The figure includes 8 333 395 Johnson & Johnson vaccine and 25 813 586 Pfizer vaccine administered to date in South Africa.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) latest data, 2 212 people received the Johnson & Johnson jab in the last 24 hours, while 3 633 received the Pfizer vaccine.

The number of people who were fully vaccinated in the last 24 hours is 1 967, and this includes 867 Johnson & Johnson and 801 Pfizer vaccines. A total of 299 people aged between 12 and 17 years were fully vaccinated in the last 24 hours.

The Department of Health has also reported zero deaths in the last 24 hours, and noted that the cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 3 619 311 with a recovery rate of 97.0%.

“Today, zero deaths have been reported bringing the total to 100 096 deaths,” the department said in a statement.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 cases identified in South Africa is 3 732 075 with 828 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Gauteng is still leading with the majority of new cases recorded in the provinces stands at 45%, followed by Western Cape 25%, KwaZulu-Natal 21%, Eastern Cape 4% and Mpumalanga, which accounted for 3%.

Meanwhile, the Free State, Limpopo and North West Provinces have accounted for 1% each, while Northern Cape accounted for less than 1% new cases.

Source: South African Government News Agency

MPUMALANGA – Sandiso Ngomane (22) was remanded in custody by the Kabokweni Magistrate Court on Friday, 08 April 2022 after he was arrested by the Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation based in Nelspruit and Crime Intelligence Nelspruit on Thursday 07 April 2022 for cash in transit heist.

It was reported that on Saturday 19 March 2022 at 09:00 a Fidelity armoured vehicle without a TSU escort was traveling from Nelspruit to Masoyi direction. Approximately 1 km before Masoyi SAPS the armoured van was rammed by unknown amount of suspects. The armoured vehicle lost control and went off the road. Inside the armoured vehicle there were the driver and two crew members. The two crews member`s sidearm were robbed. The armoured van was bombed and three safes were forced opened. An unknown amount of cash were robbed. The vehicle that was used to ram found on the scene and totally burned out. One of the crew members slightly injured and treated on the scene.

The case was handed over to the Hawks for further investigation. During further investigation by Hawks and Local Criminal Record Centre the suspect was linked to the case through fingerprints and Section 212 statement was obtained.

The matter was brought before court and warrant of his arrest was issued and executed in Hazyview on Thursday, 07 April 2022. The suspect appeared before court and he was remanded in custody until 19 April 2022 for formal bail application. Investigation continues.

Source: South African Police Service

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has called for swift action against any criminality in Diepsloot but also warned residents not to take the law into their own hands.

This as the township was rocked by violent protests against alleged inefficient policing last week.

“The Commission calls on the South African Police Service (SAPS) and all other State institutions tasked with law enforcement to provide the necessary resources to affected communities to ensure that they feel safe and can fully enjoy their basic human rights.

“The Commission reiterates its call on community leaders, politicians, State officials and community leaders from refraining from encouraging ordinary members of communities to take the law into their own hands. It is unlawful and highly dangerous to have disparate groups of ordinary community members entering people’s homes and without due process, accusing them of criminality and taking violent, often deadly, action,” the SAHRC said in a statement.

The SAHRC also called for a thorough investigation into the murder of Diepsloot resident Elvis Nyathi, who died allegedly at the hands of mob of residents after being accused of being an illegal immigrant.

He was beaten, stoned and burnt to death.

“The brutal murder of Elvis Nyathi… is a tragic and outrageous act of vigilantism that must be condemned by all law abiding people. The Commission is deeply concerned by vulnerable groups, especially foreign nationals, being targeted and scapegoated for the prevalence of social ills within communities.

“Various individuals as community leaders, and groups have emerged recently, stoking flames of xenophobia, which places the blame for social ills such as crime, poverty and unemployment solely on migrants within South Africa.

“The Commission hopes that swift action will deal with the criminality that the Diepsloot community members are concerned with, and calls on all concerned, officials and the community of Diepsloot to remain law abiding and to resolve issues in a manner that is acceptable in a democracy, and to ensure that social cohesion is also attained,” the SAHRC said.

Meanwhile, Gauteng Premier David Makhura has warned residents not to engage in work that should be carried out by law enforcement.

“We can’t support any South African who takes the law into their own hands. You can’t have people moving door to door, saying they are identifying foreign nationals. It is not the job of anybody to do that except law enforcement agencies.

“Once anyone is allowed to do that, innocent people are going to be killed. Even if somebody is in South Africa illegally, they cannot be killed,” Makhura said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

DURBAN – It is alleged that on 25 March 2022 at 10:00, a 17-year-old teenager left her home at Ndindindi in Nquthu. Her whereabouts were unknown to the family members. A missing person docket was opened at Nquthu SAPS for investigation and the docket was later changed to kidnapping after an unknown suspect demanded R8000-00 from the family.

The docket was assigned to the Dundee Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit for investigation. The team worked tirelessly utilising all available resources to search for the kidnapped victim. The investigation revealed that the kidnapped victim was at U Section in Umlazi. An operation was put in place on 6 April 2022, with police officers from various units in the SAPS.

The team held observations at various homesteads in D Section and U Section, Umlazi. Police pounced on an informal dwelling in a bushy area at Umlazi, searching for the victim. The victim fled into a nearby house upon seeing the police officers. She was chased and was found under the influence of liquor. She was taken along with her 15-year-old accomplice for questioning. It was established that the victim left her home and visited a 15-year-old girl whom she alleged that she met on social media. She stayed with her friend the entire weekend while her family and police were worried sick about her disappearance. It is alleged that she was having a good time with her new friend and they staged a kidnapping.

During the investigation, it was established that videos were taken of her to create the impression that she was being held captive. The videos were forwarded to her family and a ransom was demanded. They were charged for extortion, conspiracy to commit an offence as well as defeating the ends of justice. Both suspects appeared at the Nquthu Magistrate’s Court on 8 April 2022 however, the matter was not enrolled. The docket will now be transferred to Umlazi SAPS for further investigation. The suspects were released into their parents’ custody pending further investigation.

We would like to warn the members of the community to refrain from reporting fake cases. Those found reporting false cases would face the full might of law as it results in resources being wasted whilst police should be focussing on serious crimes. The arrest of the two teens is testimony that police have the ability to uncover such schemes and will ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.

Source: South African Police Service

On Wednesday, 13 April 2022, the City of Cape Town’s Customer Relations Department will be at Dulcie September Civic Centre on the Corner of Protea and Eland Streets in Athlone to assist residents with their service requests.

The officials will be at the Civic Centre from 09:30 until 13:30.

The Customer Service team will assist residents with logging queries and service requests and provide the customer with a reference number for their record. The reference number will also make it easy for residents to follow up on their service requests.

‘We are taking services to the people, one area at a time. Our aim is to make services accessible to all our residents and I want to encourage residents to take advantage of this opportunity. By bringing services to our residents, we are saving them time and money in terms of commuting. I want to remind those who want to make use of this opportunity to please bring their account statements and ID books to help ease the process. Look out for future area schedules that will be communicated timeously,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Theresa Uys.

Source: City Of Cape Town

The SAPS management welcomed the recent sentence achieved by a detective of SAPS Kempton Park.

On Monday, 04 April 2022 the Kempton Park Magistrates’ Court sentenced 49-year-old Jabu Ndlovu to 10 years’ imprisonment for business burglary.

Ndlovu unlawfully gained entry to a business premises in Kempton Park on Wednesday, 18 March 2022. An on duty security guard was doing patrols when he noticed Ndlovu entering the premises through a broken window and alerted the police. The SAPS members immediately acted on the complaint and arrested Ndlovu.

The case was assigned to Sergeant Lassie Mothele, a detective at SAPS Kempton Park. Mothele immediately followed up on all the available leads and obtained quality statements which led to a solid case against the accused in court.

Source: South African Police Service

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left a sour taste for South Africa’s citrus farmers, who are facing millions of dollars in losses due to sanctions that have closed off the Russian market. South Africa is the world’s second largest citrus exporter and farmers are scrambling to find other markets before the fruit spoils.

South Africa normally sends about 10% of its annual two billion dollars in citrus exports to Russia.

That’s now on hold because of sanctions imposed after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Following two years of export disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, unrest, and cyberattacks on the ports, the loss of the Russian market is another blow to South African farmers.

Citrus farmer Piet Engelbrecht pulls a lemon off a tree in the 5000 hectares he farms in Groblersdal, about a three-hour drive northeast of Johannesburg.

“It’s going to be a tough year … Although demand is growing in the current markets, it’s not going that fast, rapidly that it can absorb this, the 10%,” he said.

Engelbrecht was forced to reroute a shipment of lemons this season that was on a vessel bound for Russia.

But finding new markets isn’t simple, say industry insiders, even for well-established family farms.

Justin Chadwick is the CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa. He spoke to VOA via Zoom.

“Our markets are very susceptible to oversupply. And because the product obviously can’t be stored for any length of time, if there’s too much in the market, it either has to be seriously discounted to move the fruit quicker or it just it just wastes eventually,” he said.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has also pushed up production costs with effects beyond the current season.

“A lot of our fertilizer and a lot of our fuel is also from Russia and Ukraine, so… I think it will have more of an effect in the coming few months,” said Engelbrecht.

And it’s not just exporters having to pay higher costs to get their goods to the warehouse and sent to customers.

Rising fuel costs are hitting all areas of South Africa’s transportation and trade.

Economists warn that will have a long-term effect on the economy, mainly for consumers and the poor, who spend most of their income on food.

Dawie Roodt, chief economist for the South Africa-based Efficient Group, spoke to VOA via Zoom.

“We’re going to see inflation going through the roof. What is really, really going to be bad for South Africa is that the kind of inflation that we’re going to experience will be very high levels of food inflation, because of the Ukraine and Russia being major grain producers and also other soft commodities,” said Roodt.

Back at farmer Engelbrecht’s warehouse, workers sort fruit on conveyor lines before it is packaged for export.

While South Africa’s farmers are hopeful that they can survive the loss of the Russian market, if future growing seasons are disrupted, they may have to cut jobs.

With South Africa’s unemployment rate hitting a record 35%, the citrus industry’s 120,000 workers want to see a recovery soon, so their jobs won’t be at risk.

Source: Voice of America