VERBATIM

“Before we had lockdown, we forecast 31 days of stage 1 load-shedding. What has helped us during the past eight weeks was doing the urgent, short-term maintenance. When we ran the model again, we are now forecasting three days of stage 1 loadshedding over winter.” — Eskom’s chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer. But the lockdown restrictions prevented the maintenance required to deal with problems created during the “decade of neglect”.

“Eskom_sa can confirm it has received unsolicited offers from a group of engineers, many of whom are former @Eskom_sa employees and now retirees, who wish contribute their skills free of charge to help rebuild the organisation.” — Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha tweeted after 60 people contacted the struggling power utility.

“We know now more than ever that healthy lives depend on a healthy planet. As we walk on the road to recovery, we need to build a system that will protect us from further damage.” — About 40-million health workers signed a letter to G20 leaders calling for a “green recovery” from the Covid-19 crisis that includes cutting air pollution and deals with the climate crisis.

“If we open schools and find we experience difficulties, there is nothing stopping us from saying: ‘No, we are experiencing problems; we have to stop and restart’. We are dealing with something we do not know." — Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, dealing with concerns about reopening schools.

“We have to stop comparing women’s soccer with men’s soccer. We see people saying: ‘Marta won the trophy for best player in the world six times, but she never won a World Cup’. Well, you have Messi and Ronaldo winning the same title, but they also never won a World Cup."

— Brazilian women's football legend Marta.