Covid-19 is showing its teeth, plus 5 highlights from 'Vrye Weekblad'

Here's what's hot in the latest edition of the Afrikaans digital weekly

03 July 2020 - 07:36 By TimesLIVE
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
We are now at a critical stage in our fight against Covid-19.
We are now at a critical stage in our fight against Covid-19.
Image: 123RF/Andrey Malov

SA is now in its most critical stage of fighting Covid-19. What we do in the next few days and weeks will determine how many people will eventually die due to the virus. 

Our numbers are doubling every 10 days and cases have exploded in Gauteng, while the Eastern Cape's health care system has more or less collapsed.

“Now is not the time to get ill,” says Prof Francois Venter from Wits. He is one of those fighting on the front lines. 

This is serious, he says. “In three weeks, the picture will look much different. Protect yourself, especially if you have cancer, diabetes or any kind of diminished immunity. You HAVE to wear a mask and physically distance.”

We don't know yet if we'll see one large wave now or a bunch of smaller peaks stretched out over months, but we do know that numbers are rising, especially in Gauteng, and the Western Cape is far from out of danger. In the Eastern Cape, that wasn't delivering adequate health care even before corona, a catastrophe is unfolding. 

Read more about our Covid fight, plus more news and analysis in this week's edition of Afrikaans digital weekly Vrye Weekblad.


Read a new edition online every Friday
Only R10 for the first month!

“We are in the middle of a storm. The next month or two is going to be dire,” says Prof Alex Welte, a mathematician at Stellenbosch University who does modelling. “If our numbers keep doubling every 10 days, we'll quickly hit 30,000 deaths. It can get very bad; I hope not, but it could.”

He says SA is already at the point where every day is worse than the day before. 

“We haven't overcome anything yet. We are already at the point where we can't provide care for all who need it. We are at ground zero. What we do now will determine how many people die,” says Welte.

But people are not realising this, or not believing it, he says. Because we live in an era where “people are against science. They are not taking this seriously, not analysing it and don't see it within context. Later on they'll say, 'Wow, we got caught with our pants down'.”

Read the full article in this week's Vrye Weekblad


Must-read articles in this week's Vrye Weekblad

FREE TO READ — EC IS ILL, BROKE AND BROKEN | It is time for the ruling party to take responsibility for the huge corruption and bad management that has kept the Eastern Cape on its knees for the last 26 years. 

FREE TO READ — PSYCHOS FEAR NO VIRUS | A new study has found that people who refuse to follow advice on how to keep themselves, and especially others, safe from Covid-19 have characteristics of personality disorders. So if you refuse to wear your mask to the shops, there really is something wrong with you.

THE NEW PURITANS | Are the politicians who dream of a tobacco and booze free SA trying to protect us, or is there something more sinister behind the new wave of puritanism?

OH SHUCKS, SHOWMAX | Leon Schuster talks about his career and his movies that have been removed from Showmax while a review process is ongoing.

CARL GOES TO ORANIA | When the author received the coded message "Magersfontein" from her friend Carl on WhatsApp, she knew: An injustice had been done in Orania and it could not be tolerated. (Satire alert!)


subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now