“Hugging, kissing, a thing of the past!”

Ramaphosa eases lockdown to level 3 – for parts of the country - as of end of May!
While some suggest the president “was vague and uncertain”,  my standards aren’t as high. After all, compare the US president’s demeanor … and that of the guy who was president prior to Ramaphosa.
The current president’s update was, for me, a pleasure to see and hear.  Finally, a president who is presidential! And humane. And who admits failures – and apologizes for them.
Too bad he said, “hugging and kissing is a thing of the past.”
If the opportunity presented, I would hug and kiss him for the difficult challenge he's attempting to confront!

Water, water, not everywhere

Lack of access to safe or reliable water is reality for 1 in 3 South Africans, about 20 million people. Photo essay presents views of life for too many South Africans.

Imagine a dwelling for a family of, say, five South Africans with no running water and no indoor plumbing in a locked down township, informal settlement, or rural area.
Need water to drink, cook, bath, and wash hands to stay free of Covid-19?
Carry a container to the nearest communal water faucet (compromising social distancing), fill the container, carry it back to the house. (FYI: 1-gallon of water weighs 3.6 pounds; 1-liter weighs 1 kilogram.)
Need to pee or poop? 
Walk to the nearest communal long-drop (ditto on compromising social distancing), walk back to your locked down house, and wash your hands using the household’s precious water.

© Elitsha 
Click to enlarge

South Africa’s water supply was the topic of Daily Maverick’s webinar, “Water Wars: Access to water in post-Covid South Africa.”
Hosted by Mark Heywood with Xhanti Payi - economist and head of research at Nascence Advisory and Research - and Simon Gear – a leading South African climatologists and a national authority on global warming and green issues.

Takeaways:
South Africa faces overlapping crises: climate change (last year, Cape Town and the Cape metro area - population close to 5 million – run out of water); health and social welfare, and, now, Covid-19 co-morbid with virulent TB and the highest HIV rate in the world (7.7 million people in South Africa live with HIV).

Just do it!

Decades of corruption and the mismanagement of public funds has weakened the Department of Water and Sanitation’s ability to deliver access to safe and reliable water.

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu denies that access to water is an issue in South Africa, but her team has been forced to draw up emergency plans to deliver water to those most in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time to make safe, running water an everyday reality for everyone, always.

Amnesty International urges signing their petition to encourage Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

News blues…

Is the coronavirus mutating and becoming more contagious?  A recent study claims a new dominant strain of the virus could spread faster than the original. (Could does not mean will.)

Day 19, April 19, I predicted it wouldn’t be long before Covid-19 presented the perfect reason to release Trump protégés and current inmates from jail. Three weeks later:

• “Paul Manafort, convicted felon and former campaign manager to President Donald Trump, has been released to home confinement amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus in prisons.
• Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and longtime fixer, currently locked up at FCI Otisville in New York, “will be released from federal prison  to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic…. He will remain under quarantine for 14 days before he is released.”
• Harvey Weinstein, convicted rapist, contracted Covid-19 in mid-March at Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison east of Buffalo, NY. He’s being held in the prison's residential mental health unit, where he remains on suicide watch. (Not a Trump protégé.)
• Bill Cosby will not be granted an early prison release. “Mr. Cosby is not eligible for release under Gov. Wolf’s order since he was convicted of a violent offence (aggravated indecent assault) and was deemed a Sexually Violent Predator.” (Not a Trump protégé.)

No one should be exposed to Covid-19. But…will these felons report back to prison after the pandemic?
Enquiring minds want to know….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday’s intruder sent me on a search of crime statistics since lockdown. Initially, there was a drop in crime:

Attempted murder cases dropped from 1300 to 443, rape cases fell from 2908 to 371, assault GBV cases decrease from 11 876 to 1758 and aggravated robberies fell from 6654 to 2022.
Carjacking crimes decreased 80.9 percent, robbery at non-residential premises decreased 65.5 percent, robbery at residents’ premises decreased by 53.8 percent. 

Then, alas,

The first week of level 4 restrictions has seen vehicle recovery activities more than double compared to the lockdown extension figures, representing a six-fold increase from the first week of lockdown to figures that are now only 35 percent lower than pre-lockdown averages. Vehicle crime activities are set to rise even further, back to the same levels or even higher as South Africans return to work and criminals resume their operations. 

On the other hand, neighborhood monkey incursions continue unabated.
Like troops of baboons, monkey troops post sentries to ensure youngsters are safe. Today, by mid-morning, the sentries had declared the zone safe and the troop, youngsters and all, had infiltrated the ‘hood.
My so-so video skills captured monkey antics, including an active three-legged monkey.

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