OBITUARY: BY MARLAN PADAYACHEE
Surprisingly, President Cyril Ramaphosa called a “family meeting’’, but warned the nation not to “drop your guard’’ ahead of a successive killer third wave and variants swirling around coronavirus.
Quote: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.’’ – Mae West – New York-born Hollywood screen goddess, renowned for her light-hearted, bawdy double entendres and breezy sexual independence, often narrated in her husky contalto voice: 17.08.1893-22.11.1980.
DURBAN DATELINE: Since the weekend South Africa is stepping closer to reaching the grim milestone of 50 000 Covid-19 deaths and 1, 4-million infections as coronavirus continues on its deadly sweep across the nation.
Surprisingly, President Cyril Ramaphosa called a “family meeting’’, but warned the nation not to “drop your guard’’ ahead of a successive killer third wave and variants swirling around coronavirus. The infection rates had dropped from 80 000 in December,
40 000 in January to 10 000 in February, prompting Union Buildings to soften the lockdown. Overnight, however, there were 1168 new infections.
The presidency – following a Cabinet meeting – clicked back the lockdown level 3 to alert level 1 on Sunday night, relaxed restrictions, allowed for indoor gatherings of 100 and outdoor crowds of 250 – without any after-tears funeral parties – and calmed the curfew from midnight to 4am. On the vaccine roll-out side, the president said up to 40-million will be vaccinated within the herd immunity drive; with Johnson & Johnson contracted for 11 million doses, Pfizer 20 million and a share of the COVAX cartel’s 12-million. In the meantime, SA’s death-rate edged towards 50 000.
PETER GRACE: On Monday, a tearful golf winner Brandon Grace, disclosed that his father Peter – whose month-long battle and Covid-19 death he described as “losing the rock in his life’’ told SABC SAfm sports presenter Zai Khan about how he was going to miss his father dearly, thereby prompting lead presenter Stephen Grootes to highlight how coronavirus was tearing down families.
THANDISIZWE DIKO: Last week, the ruthless march of the global pandemic was further highlighted by the sudden death – at the age of 43 – of controversial AmaBhaca self-styled “king’’ Thandisizwe Madzikane 11 Diko – husband of suspended presidential spokeswoman Khusela Diko, whose name and photograph cropped up during the latest Covid-19 government contract, allegedly involving Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize and the Digital Vibes Three – Tahera Mather, Radha Hariram and Naadirah Mitha – all of KwaDukuza-Stanger – in a R82-million Covid-19 and National Health Insurance communications outsourcing deal that was flagged the Auditor-General as irregular and currently being probed by the State Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Director-General of the Department of Health.
Diko and his wife were allegedly implicated in and R125-million PPE procurement scandal involving Gauteng Health MEC, Bandile Masuku, said to be out in the cold from the ANC. The contract was irregularly awarded to Royal Bhaca, owned by Khusela Diko’s late husband.
However, before Diko could clear his name, he died in a hospital in East London of unknown cause of death. His brother-in-law Prince Vuluthuba Sangoni said: “His death took us by surprise, usizimele usibali. This has left us devastated.’’ Within hours, President Cyril Ramaphosa conveyed the nation’s condolences to the Amabhaca tribe.
As cracks on the coronavirus wall of shame began appearing over the procurement of the personal protective equipment supply-and-demand frenzy – as a stunned country battled the harsh lockdowns, curfews and stay/work-at-home protocol – hundreds of fully employed civil servants, their families and bogus and non-medical supplying businesses – exploited the gaping loopholes to make huge sums of money from the government’s cash-cow tender processes. In KwaZulu-Natal, one of the hardest hit by more than 6 500 Covid-19 deaths and thousands of infections, Premier Sihle Zikalala has hosted more Covid-19 press conferences than normal government business, also mentioning the pandemic and Covid-19 procurements in his State of the Province Address.
Of the weekly death tolls, he said: “We thought we had seen the worst when we spoke about being ‘in the eye of the storm’ with the virus … but what we are seeing now is far beyond that. The province recorded 40 deaths on January 16 – bringing the total to 6 318 deaths.’’
“This is a case fatality rate of 2.3% since the beginning of the pandemic. Quite notably, eThekwini Municipality has contributed 44% of the reported deaths. The median age for the deaths was 62 years. More than half of the deceased were female. Of these deaths, 4 826 (77%) had comorbidities. The most commonly recorded comorbidities among the deceased include hypertension (25%), diabetes mellitus (22%), cardiac diseases (5%) and RVD-infection (5%). The number of deaths with no recorded comorbidities increased to 28%.’’
’Worryingly, these statistics are telling us that a whole 33% of the deceased patients had no underlying illnesses.’’
On Friday, he appeared to dodge media questions about the corruption around Covid-19 PPEs. However, he earlier disclosed that the government’s lifestyle auditing of state employees and officials was underway and local government was committed to clamping down on fraud and irregular expenditure.
The premier has disclosed how the Covid-19 budget was spent:
Disclosed the names and amounts spent with companies that were awarded COVID-19 tenders.
Provincial departments and public entities spent a total of R2-billion procuring resources and support management for the coronavirus crisis.
BEE Black-owned businesses received a huge chunk of the cash share, 38% and Indian-owned companies and individuals picked up 29% of state business. Amidst the anxiety of infections remaining stubbornly high, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – totaling 80 000 doses at a 64% single dose efficacy – landed via SAA from Brussels at the weekend, and stored in a safe refrigeration hub, while 63 000 frontline workers were inoculated with the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca vaccine.
COVID-19 DEATHS: The South African Medical Research Council says more people have died of coronavirus than natural deaths during the Covid-19 year. The MRC has published excess deaths weekly during the year-long pandemic:’’We and others have been stating that the excess deaths are mostly due to Covid-19, and not the lockdown restrictions. This has been disputed by some people.’’ The MRC asked for a report of the data analysis from Alex van den Heever of the Wits School of Governance: “It convincingly shows that excess deaths are almost entirely due to SARS-CoV-2 infections.’’
FOOTNOTE: There were several Covid-19 deaths across Durban this week, but families and businesses, fearing stigmatization on the scale of cancer or HIV and AIDS, appear to be closing ranks and not disclosing cause of deaths. Some of these deaths are mentioned on Facebook, WhatsApp and social media platforms.
We salute these fallen change-makers, visionaries, frontline workers and ordinary people: until next week, in the wisdom of MK Gandhi: “Where there is love, there is life.’’
Hamba Kahle, (go well, farewell in isiZulu) comrades, compatriots and citizens – MARLAN PADAYACHEE
