On Tuesday evening (28 April), details of what a Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown will look like from Friday onwards still remained unclear. Even a ministerial briefing that day was thin on specifics, pending the gazetting of the regulations.

Nonetheless, the National Command Council is still considering public comments on the implementation of Level 4 and will explain the new regulations later in the week, said Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane during a briefing on Tuesday. The deadline for submission was noon the previous day.

In addition, employers were urged to apply to the Unemployment Insurance Fund to receive help. Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu has asked employers to do so, as apparently “very few” have applied.

As Greg Nicolson reports, businesses that haven’t been paying their employees’ UIF have been encouraged to come forward, admit the debt and allow their employees to get help, according to Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi and Small Business Development Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.

While the country waits for a concrete action plan, some are making things work with or without government assistance.

A collection of 328 South African published authors, academics and readers have written an open letter to the National Coronavirus Command Council and various ministers to ask that books are allowed to be sold under Level 4. Read their letter here.

The AmaMpondomise Kingdom in the Eastern Cape has taken the decision to suspend funerals to curb the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the province. Instead, an old tradition called ukuqhusheka will be used, meaning the body will be taken straight to the graveyard where only 10 family members will be permitted. During Level 1 the full funeral service and rituals will be allowed again. As Estelle Ellis reports, this comes after 40 people tested positive after attending a funeral in Port St Johns.

The Eastern Cape continues to battle another crisis: the drought. Leaders have been arrested while trying to organise water for others who have been without it since 2017. Tragically, they are not alone. As Estelle Ellis writes, there have been accounts from around the country of people struggling to make it through police, long lines, far distances and high prices to get to water. As ever, local activists are on the scene and working to make this change.

It came to light on Tuesday that nine employees in the mining industry had tested positive for Covid-19. Most are head office staff who had contact with overseas travellers, and the few mineworkers who have it are thought to have contracted it outside of the mines. As Ed Stoddard reports, this comes as trade unions apply pressure to mines about the well-being of mineworkers as the sector reboots further. DM