From the desk of the President, Monday, 23 March 2020

Don’t take your eyes off the coronavirus pandemic and the precautionary measures. But there is a war brewing in local football, if information reaching SABC News is anything to go by, writes SABC Digital News Senior Producer, Sipho Kekana.

The coronavirus pandemic has been described as a litmus test for President Cyril Ramaphosa. His leadership has already been a point of discussion since the outbreak of the lethal virus.

South Africa has swiftly gone big and correctly scaled up its response to the COVID-19 outbreak. A central part of the effort must be directed to protecting the safety of its healthcare workers, a matter, unlike social distancing, government can directly fund, regulate and control

Akebe Luther King Abia, University of KwaZulu-Natal The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, recently declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, has taken the world by surprise. The good news is that tremendous scientific and technological advances have permitted scientists to understand a lot about this virus in a short amount of time. Within […]

The fight against death pauses every day at 1 p.m. At that time, doctors in the intensive care unit of Policlinico San Donato phone relatives of the unit’s 25 critically-ill coronavirus patients, all of whom are sedated and have tubes down their throats to breathe, to update the families.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, recently declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, has taken the world by surprise. The good news is that tremendous scientific and technological advances have permitted scientists to understand a lot about this virus in a short amount of time.

The current COVID-19 outbreak is driven by a novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) that is spreading between people.

The current COVID-19 outbreak is driven by a novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) that is spreading between people. The first human infections were reported at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province in China when a cluster of 41 pneumonia cases was identified. Deeper analysis showed that it was a novel coronavirus.

The purpose of national economic reform is to change the structure and overall direction of an economy. Reforms, therefore, can affect the amount of resources available to a country

As the issue of repatriation of foreign nationals from China grabs the headlines in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent in the wake of the spread of COVID-19, there are some important lessons that can still be drawn from events 102 years ago in 1918 when an earlier epidemic, of so-called Spanish flu, arrived in the country.

Market analysts say the sharp decline in the oil price presents both challenges and opportunities for South Africa.

Much of the media discussion about coronavirus revolves around diagnosis and management of suspected cases. But the first piece of advice that is essential for anyone worried about contracting the coronavirus is something your grandparents might have suggested: wash your hands.

Is the African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal fashioning itself as the centre of unity in the governing party with the invitation of former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe to address its provincial structures? 

The Budget presented by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni last week presents a sobering assessment of the state of our economy.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s budget for the 2020/21 fiscal year was delivered at the backdrop of a synchronised global economic slowdown.

There is much riding on the contents of this week’s budget speech. Perhaps a little more this time because of a slide into full-blown “junk” status, which is a very clear and present danger, writes Busi Mavuso.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's budget speech may be one of the most important South African budget speeches of the past 20 years. Mboweni is under pressure to deliver bold reforms and to restore investor and business confidence, he may need to take some steps that will be unpopular with taxpayers and constituencies like the trade unions writes Yolandi Esterhuizen.

Like millions of South Africans, I wanted to watch President Cyril Ramaphosa give his State of the Nation Address (SONA). 

Engaging with young people always leaves me energised.

FIFA has ended its 6-month management takeover of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). But the future of the game on the continent is still clouded with uncertainty.

There are growing suggestions to accentuate levels of transparency in the long-running polarizing clashes between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency RUSADA.

Political Analyst Ralph Mathekga says the envisaged motion of no confidence submitted by the African Transformation Movement (ATM) to remove President Cyril Ramaphosa has no chance to succeed.

We usually think of viral respiratory infections, like the common cold, as mild nuisances that pass in a few days. But the Wuhan coronavirus has proven to be different. Of those infected, around 2% are reported to have died but the true mortality is unknown.

International Relations Expert Professor Siphamandla Zondi says there is still a lot to be negotiated in the Brexit deal as the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union after 47 years on Friday.

In his weekly letter, President Ramaphosa writes that tragedies that have led to the deaths of children can be brought to an end if everyone takes responsibility for raising South Africa's children.

At the start of each new year there’s a global flurry of excitement and attention around education’s new directions.

President Ramaphosa writes that a capable state starts with the people who work in it, adding that officials and managers must possess the right financial and technical skills and other expertise.

To many South Africans, it would seem as if 2020 is likely to bring “more of the same” - drought, economic woes and a low growth rate, political uncertainty and squabbling within and between political parties, load shedding and concerns about unemployment.

The fact that Glen Hoddle left behind poor hybrids of himself, like Pitso Mosimane, who will, on his behalf, rebuke their own for being themselves is excruciatingly painful. But Mosimane obviously never thought that far before he made that comment hence the need to remind him, writes Sipho 'King K' Kekana.

For many years, allegations of corruption in South African football, and in the National First Division, in particular, have existed and as the fight for PSL promotion intensifies, the same issue of match-fixing is rearing its ugly head … AGAIN.