BREAKING: Thapelo Amad has resigned as Joburg Mayor. #eNCA He tendered his resignation and was accepted. In the next few days a name will be submitted for the candidate of a new mayor. #eNCA

The National Demand Side Management Indaba was meant to have Minister of DPE Pravin Gordhan and Minister of Electricity Kgosienthso Ramokgopa present. Both are not here as the are still preoccupied with ANC NEC. #eNCA Eskom interim CEO Calib Cassim says the objective is to ensure there are enough MWs for the winter months ahead. Cassim calls on support for the 40 000 workers who are at Eskom trying to keep the lights on. #eNCA #EnergyCrisis

THREAD ON WHAT HAPPENED:
I was almost raped and murdered on 14th of Feb. House was broken into. I woke up to him walking towards my bed. He tied me up. When he was done in my room & left I managed to untie my hands & then heard him coming back upstairs. He forced me outside. He got violent and aggressive. Kept asking for money and laptops. He then ripped my pjs off. When he got up to take his pants off I decided to be brave and run for my life. Hands tied to the back with no clothes on. I thought I’ll rather die than be rape. Let me take the risk.

There is currently 3.8 million vaccines available in stock in SA at the moment. That’s both Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer vaccines. Looking at the current rate of vaccines administered per day and stock available, it gives SA 18 days of vaccine rollout. #VaccineRolloutSA This does not mean that beyond 18 days vaccines won’t be administered. There is stock arriving with new arrival dates for Pfizer announced. Stock is arriving.

BREAKING: South Africa has vaccinated over 4 million people. As of 5pm 8 July 4,017,432 people have received the #Covid19 jab.
Another all time high, 191,833 people were vaccinated today. #VaccineRolloutSA Government has also increased details on its dashboard.
Vaccines administered in last 24hours:
J&J= 13,938
Pfizer vaccines= 177,885
The dashboard now also shows how many second doses of Pfizer vaccine have been administered. #VaccineRolloutSA

JUST IN: SA has recorded 16,585 new #Covid19 cases in the last 24-hours.
A total of 54,879 tests were conducted in the last 24 hrs, representing a 30.2% positivity rate. 333 people have since passed due to #Covid19 complications in the last 24-hours. Out of the 16,585 new #Covid19 cases, 9,443 are in Gauteng.
KZN reporting 1,166 and Western Cape 1,784
#Covid19SA #ThirdWave #DeltaVariant

BREAKING: South Africa records 26,485 new #Covid19 cases in the last 24-hours.
A total of 96,896 tests were conducted in the last 24-hours representing a 27.3% positivity rate. This is the highest #Covid19 cases recorded in a 24-hour period. Out of the 26,485 new #Covid19 cases in the last 24-hours, 16,091 are in Gauteng. Western Cape has recorded 2,999 new cases with Limpopo 1,780 new cases.

BREAKING: South Africa records 24,270 new #Covid19 cases in the last 24-hours. This is the highest the country has recorded in a day. 14,198 are in Gauteng. A total of 88,738 tests were conducted in the last 24 hrs, with 24,270 new cases, which represents a 27.4% positivity rate. A further 303 #Covid19 related deaths have been reported.

JUST IN: Department of Health says there is now a real possibility that the #JohnsonandJohnson vaccines in the EC may not be be suitable for use following FDA announcement however SAHPRA needs to further assess and will advise if they are suitable for SA or not. JUST IN: Dep of Health says 300 000 J&J doses are cleared to be shipped to SA as a matter of extreme urgency. #JohnsonAndJohnsonVaccine

BREAKING: Reports suggest that the FDA has ordered Johnson & Johnson to throw out about 60 million doses which were made at the Emergent BioSolutions plant. This is due to possible contamination. #JohnsonAndJohnson South Africa has been waiting on the FDA to give an indication on whether or not the Johnson and Johnson vaccines they were packaged in the EC can be released. Now that the FDA is ordered for 60m doses to be destroyed, does that include batches brought to SA?

JUST IN: 8881 new positive #Covid19 cases have been identified in the last 24-hours. A total of 53 732 tests were conducted in the last 24-hours and with 8 881 new cases reported this represents a 16.5% positivity rate.
A further 129 #COVID19 related deaths have been reported in the last 24-hours.

BREAKING: B.1.617.2 #Covid19 variant first detected in India is now in South Africa. Department of Health announces 4 cases have been identified. Network for Genomic Surveillance in SA has confirmed 2 variants of concern, other than the B.1.351 already dominating in SA, have been detected.
These are:
11 cases of the B.1.1.7 which was first detected in the UK.
And 4 cases of B.1.617.2 first detected in India. #COVID19

Dep of Health the B.1.351 prevalent in SA has more mutations than the B.1.617 which is dominant in India, SA is still able to control the spread of B.1.351 in SA & bring the wave down to a plateau. #Covid19 #CovidVariants Dep of Health says we have no need to panic about the B.1.617 which is dominant in India because, as with any variant of the #Coronavirus the treatment is the same and the way we prevent spread is the same.

Day 3 of the #PleaseCallMe case. Nkosana Makate isn’t accepting the formula #Vodacom has used to come to R47m compensation figure for inventing the model. Today Vodacom will continue with its arguments. #Vodacom says it didn’t have the software at the time to come to the exact profit made by the model. It appears as though calls made within an hour after a #PleaseCallMe was sent has been considered as part of calculating the profits the model brought in for #Vodacom

The first batch of 325 260 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in SA just before midnight. Vaccines will be taken to a central warehouse and samples will then be sent to the National Control Laboratory for quality assurance. After they will be distributed to provinces #VaccinesSA Till the end of May SA will receive 325 260 Pfizer vaccines weekly. By end of May SA will have a total of 1.3 Pfizer vaccines. Then 636 480 doses will arrive weekly from 31 May which will accumulate close to 4.5 million doses by end of June. #VaccinesSA

Anele Tembe is being laid to rest today. Her father Moses Tembe personal tribute is read out. He speaks of how strong his daughter was, strong willed. She never minced her words. Moses Tembe: “In 2009 I told her I wouldn’t have had any meetings that day. And would give her my undivided attention. 10-year old Anele wouldn’t hear non of it. She made such a scene of my deceit my meeting was moved. Anele was a dreamer.”

VACCINE REGISTRATION: Phase 2 of vaccine registration begins today. Those 60 and above can register from around 4pm today. Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says the portal will be live and functioning properly this afternoon. Health Minister Mkhize says this is a significant moment for the vaccine rollout. Phase 2 is scheduled for May-October. Phase 2 includes the elderly (those above 60)
Essential workers (ideally those who are 40 and above first)
Getting vaccinated is not compulsory,it’s a choice.

BREAKING: Government has decided to suspend the rollout of the Johnson &Johnson vaccine for now. This comes soon after the US has asked states to temporarily halt using J&J's Covid-19 vaccine after six people in the US developed a rare blood-clotting disorder. #Vaccine #J&J

BREAKING: #SAA was stopped by SA Civil Aviation Authority from flying to Brussels to fetch the J&J vaccine due to risk measures not adequate enough/ acceptable with aviation standards. This is why TUI flew the vaccine in. CAA declined the request for the National carrier to fly. CAA says It is must be noted that SAA had voluntarily ceased operations a while back. However, this does not mean that they had surrendered their Air Operator Certificate to SACAA. Their AOC remains valid even though they had put their operations temporarily on hold.

#SAA update: The Business rescue practitioners say they are pleased to advise that the payment of Cabin Crew and Ground Staff employees who took Voluntary Severance packages at the end of August 2020 were paid their Part 1 of their packages on Friday 12 February 2021. The payment follows the receipt of a further tranche of R5 billion from the Department of Public Enterprises on 12 Feb, which has further allowed the BRPs to confirm the second payment on 19 February. Since Friday 12 February, the BRPs have received a total of R7.8 billion. #SAA

Former #SAA board Chair Dudu Myeni wants the interim enforcement order against her removed, pending the outcome of any appeal against the main order. Myeni was declared a delinquent director for life last year by the Pretoria High Court. She is appealing the order. On 22 December 2020, Judge Tolmay dismissed Myeni’s application for leave to appeal against the delinquency order itself which was handed down in May 2020. Myeni is arguing that she is no longer a director on the board of any SOE including the Mangaung electricity entity Centlec.