This morning, Sandile Buthelezi, will complete a 26-year journey through offices and corridors of hospitals and health facilities, scattered across South Africa and the region, when he takes up his new position as the Director-General (DG) of the National Department of Health.
Feature
Another Country: Hungry Children and the Quest for Four Big Pots
If Alexandra was sitting on a westward facing hill it would look directly over to Sandton, accusingly. Instead it faces to the East and is invisible to its well-heeled neighbour. Another country. This makes it possible for those who live and work in Africa’s richest square mile to ignore the suffering to which they are umbilically connected and to shun their responsibilities even in a time of crisis. But this article is not a story about guilting the rich; it is a positive story about those who get on with the business of saving lives, oblivious to their hardened wealthy neighbours. As if they live in another country. It’s a kind of fairytale.
Long Live Bhani’s Bicycles! Long Live the Radium Beerhall!
Pull a pint, fix a bike… against all odds, some of Joburg’s small family businesses survive. But now the lockdown to stem the Covid-19 pandemic may be putting them through their ultimate trial. This article celebrates the tenacity of two family businesses and calls on readers to patronise them when this crisis is over.
Protect and Serve (Food), in Happiness Valley on Freedom Day
On Monday, 27 April 2020, at an informal settlement called Happiness Valley, SANDF Major Andre Meisner told Maverick Citizen, ‘we are not at war with the community’ and invited the writer to participate in a military mission where no blood was shed and where only bread and not bullets were fired. It felt like one of those days that could only happen in South Africa.
I Ride What I Like – Thoughts from a bicycle on State(s) of Nation
In a world without Covid-19, Thursday would have seen the start of the annual joberg2c mountain bike race but, like many sporting events, it has been cancelled. The field on the outskirts of Heidelberg, where hundreds of nervous men, women and their bikes usually gather for the start, was empty this year.
Who is blocking emergency relief for the poorest households?
On Monday Maverick Citizen reported on an important letter sent to President Ramaphosa by an influential group of children’s rights organisations, academics and international bodies, including UNICEF, calling for the Child Support Grant to be increased by R500 for the next six months.
Activists step up door-to-door work to protect poor communities
One of the lasting lessons of the Aids epidemic has been the importance of involving communities directly in epidemic prevention, treatment and care. In addition, it has been understood that community activists, who are known and trusted by local residents, are usually the best people to mobilise communities behind public health messages.
Influential coalition urges President Ramaphosa to increase child support grants
On Friday evening, just as the sun was going down, an important letter was despatched over the internet to President Cyril Rampahosa, calling for an immediate R500-a-month increase to the child support grant for a period of six months. Such a measure, the letter states, ‘is the simplest, quickest and most effective way to get cash into millions of poor households that will otherwise face food insecurity and debilitating poverty’.
The dignity of the damned
For many years I have been a fair-weather friend of two people who work on the corner of Yale and Empire Roads near Wits University in Johannesburg. One sells newspapers and the other sells flowers. Whatever changes privilege or fortune bestows on my life – disappearing overseas for a few months, moving from an office at Wits to an office in Braamfontein – I know they will always be there. Till death do us part.
These are the essential conditions needed to ensure the 21-day lockdown is a success
Tonight South Africa begins a 21-day lockdown. While there is unanimous support for the necessity of such a drastic measure it is important to keep level heads; it is also important for the President and the National Command team to be open to constructive suggestions that aim to make sure that the lockdown succeeds in its aim of ‘flattening the curve’ and drastically reducing the incidence of new infections. This article, based on conversations with leading public health experts in South Africa and internationally, must be read in this spirit.