Minister Patel today provided a draft framework for sectors for the different levels of lockdown, asking for comments and input before the final regulations will be promulgated next Thursday, in time for the shift to level 4.

Durban - As the country waits with bated breath on President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement on Thursday night on whether or not the  national lockdown will end at the end of April, a government document – shared widely on social media – has outlined exactly how the government will ease the restrictions.

The physical distancing measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 15 March followed by an extended lockdown may have bought us time to prepare for Covid-19. Good leadership has helped the response, but the current lockdown is not sustainable.

Clem Sunter is a scenario planner and strategist whose influential ideas in the 1980s played into apartheid South Africa opting for the High Road of political settlement, rather than the Low Road of confrontation and civil war.

Hunger is driving poor South Africans into maize fields to pilfer mealies in what industry group Grain SA says are growing numbers. Many are children. Things are that bad.

While it is early to make a definitive assessment, one can argue that South Africa’s agricultural sector has been relatively more insulated from the Covid-19 pandemic than other sectors of the economy that are on complete lockdown.