Daily Podcast – March 18, 2020

18th March 2020 By: Sane Dhlamini - Creamer Media Senior Contributing Editor and Researcher

Daily Podcast – March 18, 2020

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: Coronavirus cases increase to 116 in South Africa, Eskom and Emfuleni strike a deal on municipality's arrears and, Nehawu insists on marching over civil servant wages amid virus outbreak

 

Coronavirus cases increase to 116 in South Africa

South Africa now has 116 confirmed cases of Covid-19 - an increase of 31 new cases since Tuesday. 

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize made the announcement this morning, adding that a further eight local transmission cases of people who had not travelled overseas had been reported.

The department is expected to  provide information to the public of how these local transmissions occur.

Gauteng has now recorded 16 new cases; KwaZulu-Natal three; Mpumalanga two; and the Western Cape 10.

 

Eskom and Emfuleni strike a deal on municipality's arrears

Eskom has agreed to stop attaching the assets of Emfuleni municipality in western Gauteng, on condition that it pay R50-million in electricity arrears on Wednesday.

According to deal, the municipality will also pay its monthly bills to the power utility in full.

Emfuleni municipality owes Eskom R2.3-billion.

The agreement was struck at a meeting called by Gauteng cooperative governance member of the executive council Lebogang Maile and attended by Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, as well as several mayors in the province.

 

Nehawu insists on marching over civil servant wages amid virus outbreak

While president Cyril Ramaphosa may have banned gatherings of more than 100 people in reaction to the coronavirus crisis, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union will go ahead with a march in protest of public sector wage hikes.

Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha said that the latest discussions with government indicated that the state to renege on public service wage agreements in April, with many public servants ending up with an "effective zero percent" increase.

In response, Nehawu is pressing ahead with plans to march on 30 March.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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