COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES | National command council ministers to brief SA on level 3 lockdown plans

May 30 2020 - 10:00

National coronavirus command council ministers to brief SA on level 3 lockdown plans

Three ministers who serve in the national coronavirus command council are expected to brief South Africa on Saturday about their departments' plans as the country moves to level 3 lockdown on Monday.

May 30 2020 - 08:00

WATCH | The 'tobacco tango' — inside the illicit cigarette trade

In a dingy convenience store in the Cape Town city centre, a man sitting in the dark behind an unlit counter offers a pack of Mega Blue cigarettes for about R180. He is wearing no mask, and neither are some of the customers strolling in and out.

Government regulations are no longer respected at this corner store with the banning of cigarette sales and TimesLIVE journalists are pretending to buy something which is now more difficult to get than dagga.

May 30 2020 - 07:00

'If they die, they die alone,' says heartbroken Cape Town nurse

“I saw on social media someone had commented that nurses are dying because ‘they don’t use their PPE properly’. I just went and had a good cry. People have no idea what we’re going through.”

These are the words of June Bradbury, a nurse in Cape Town who is witnessing first-hand the “new normal” at hospitals as Covid-19 spreads in the province and country — while many still deny that this is a crisis situation.