Actress Rami Chuene has responded to news that 122 South Africans are returning from Wuhan, China amid the coronavirus scare to be quarantined at a resort in Limpopo.

Taking to social media just hours before the flight carrying the evacuees was set to land, Rami claimed that, unlike China, SA has not established a solid system to deal with a possible virus outbreak on a bigger scale.

“I’m just wondering if they didn’t stand a better chance there than here?,” she asked.In a separate tweet, Rami said things cannot go on like its business as usual.

She said people must be stopped from coming in and going out of the country to prevent further risk.

“Let’s put ourselves first for a change. Close the door so we can have a family meeting as SA.”

The eight Jewish community schools that closed across Cape Town on Thursday will remain closed, after a parent at one of the schools tested positive for the coronavirus.

pending the outcome of the man’s Covid-19 test.

The school confirmed the parent’s positive result on Friday, saying United Herzlia high school, middle school, three primary schools and three pre-primary schools will now remain closed until after the holidays.”Yesterday, we committed to communicating facts only – in discussion with the family this morning, we are heartened to report that he is feeling much better, is almost symptom-free and remains at home,” said Andries van Renssen, the executive director of the schools.

Our teachers will be teaching remotely from Monday through Friday, so as to minimize learning disruption as far as possible.”

For more on the coronavirus and the experiences of South Africans living in Italy under 

Seven people have been arrested in Ladysmith, northern KwaZulu-Natal, after nearly two weeks of protests and the torching of trucks.

The town has been in chaos after six department of social development cars and five trucks were set on fire during protests calling for the removal of Alfred Duma local municipality mayor Vincent Madlala.

In the early hours of Friday, police were patrolling and clearing rubble on the R103, which has been a hotspot for protests, when they were alerted to activity on the N11 freeway.

“Upon arrival, they spotted a suspicious minibus standing next to the barricades. All the suspects were caught red-handed setting up barricades on the road. A search was conducted and six old tyres, petrol and an axe were found inside the  vehicle,” said police spokesperson Col Thembeka Mbele.

Mbele said that the men, aged between 24 and 47, were charged with public violence. They were expected to appear in the Ladysmith magistrate’s court on Friday.

On Tuesday, a government delegation met business leaders, mayors and aggrieved residents in a bid to find a solution to stop the protests, which have brought the town to a standstill and cost it R30m a day.

KZN premier Sihle Zikalala condemned “the violent actions that have led to the destruction of property, torching of trucks and water shortages in some parts of the town”.

A technical problem has seen the department of affairs processing as few as 5,000 passport and ID applications a day compared to the daily capacity of 20,000.
Image: 123RF/ Instinia
A home affairs technical “glitch” has affected thousands of people wanting to apply for passports and identity documents.

In a statement issued on Friday, the department admitted that 194 of its 412 offices were affected by a “glitch in the technology it uses to process applications for smart ID cards and passports”.

This has resulted in service interruptions over the past two weeks.

“The service interruptions have seen the department processing as few as 5,000 applications a day compared with the daily capacity of 20,000. The department was able to process 16,000 applications only in two days in the past two weeks,” it said.

The department said IT specialists were trying to restore the capability of the system.

“The minister of home affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has authorised front offices to manually issue passports which are already in offices to citizens who want to collect them. However, passport applications cannot be taken manually. Smart ID cards can’t be issued manually.

“No other services are affected.

“The department expresses its deepest apologies to the public for the inconvenience and appeals for patience while the system is being stabilised,” the department said.