your chirps

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OVERESTIMATED NUMBERS

On March 23, the president forecast one million infected and up to 60,000 hospitalised within 40 days. The Mail & Guardian did its own calculations and affirmed this. Thirty-five days later, there were 4,700 infections and 56 people in hospital. It appears that Covid-19 has been massively exaggerated by the media, press and middle class. To confuse things further, Dr Cheryl Cohen from the NICD [National Institute for Communicable Diseases] is wondering when government will release new forecasts. Time to move on before the entire country falls off an economic cliff and millions do starve.

Ed

NEW BOSS THE SAME

What is the difference between socalled level 5 and level 4 lockdown? Just what an old Soviet proverb said: “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.” The public consultation process for level 4 lockdown procedures was an insulting joke. Who has a virologist, an epidemiologist and a constitutional expert on speed dial over a weekend? Cyril Ramaphosa for sure, but not us regular folks!

SCHOOL FEES

School fees letter from L Zixo refers. I couldn’t agree more. When that agreement was signed there was no hint of a coronavirus pandemic and the

Mircea Negres

havoc it would sow. The government should be using some of the loans being accessed to support schools and allow them to reduce school fees. The financial uncertainty at this time is very stressful for parents. Department of education — help parents with schoolgoing children please. After all, university students get aid.

Granny

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

Who is running this country? First our president says that cigarettes will be taken off the banned list, then minister NDZ announces that cigarettes are still banned. Also in the president’s speech he announces a top-up of R500 for every needy child. Minister Lindiwe Zulu announces on Wednesday that the government can’t afford the R500. Our president also asks businesses to please pay their creditors but you try to get the monies owed to you by government parastatals or the municipality. Good luck to you. I ask again: Who is running this country? Definitely not our president.

KP NDZ talking last Wednesday evening was busy undoing all the good work done by the rest of government in handling the Covid pandemic.

Not impressed

BIG BROTHER

Anonymous (“Smoking the greatest cause of ill health”) has lost the plot. Is he also in government? The purpose of

the lockdown is to contain the virus. That’s it! It is not rehab. It is not to stop smoking cold turkey. Drinking soft drinks is hazardous to your health. Are they going to ban that? Where are we going to draw the line? Big brother must mind his own business! Why would I dream of taking advice from the same mob who ran Eskom and SAA into the ground, stole SA blind, and advocated beetroot and the African potato as a cure for Aids?

Ivan Skovar

INSTANT MILLIONAIRE

Re Sassa food packages — this is an absolute disgrace. Only two-thirds of the allocated amount the government provides reaches those most in need. If the figures quoted in Friday’s Herald are correct, the contractor hired by the province for 2020/2021 stands to make R15m-plus for his services. Sassa’s regional manager needs to be investigated urgently.

Ian

RULES NOT OBEYED

I feel we will still be under siege near Christmas. In The Herald of April 28 we find young boys carrying huge bags of bottles to be sold. All well and good, but why were they outside? We were still in lockdown. And in another photo, hundreds of people are queuing up to buy groceries outside Checkers in Greenacres — close together! Why? Rules are not being obeyed.

J van Eeden