Letoya Makhene and her lover, Lebo Keswa paints social media with their date night while on lockdown.

The actress confirmed news of being a lesbian weeks ago and she flaunts her romantic relationship with Joburg businesswoman on social media.

On Sunday, the two had a date and it appears to be a beautiful one, as they took fans through the night.

“Yesterday I was asked out on a date. Tonight I was sent a formal invitation with a menu attached to it. I spent most of the afternoon getting ready for my date as the kids decided to open up their salon in the privacy of our own home to help me look perfect for my date…I think they did a pretty darn good job! Every meal was prepared by my love, @lebokeswa
She bribed the kids to keep themselves busy for the night while she caters to my every want and need,” Letoya said.

The briefing was to have been addressed by basic education minister Angie Motshekga and her counterpart from higher education, Blade Nzimande. Stock photo.
Image: Pixabay/Jhon Dal
Parents, pupils, teachers and education stakeholders will have to wait a little longer to hear when schooling will resume.

Monday’s much-anticipated address by basic education minister Angie Motshekga has been postponed to later this week.

Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the postponement “was necessitated by the need to align with other interventions that are to be taken by the National Command Council later this week”.

The briefing was to have been addressed by Motshekga and her counterpart from higher education Blade Nzimande.

“Ministers were meant to give an update on their areas of work in relation to the Covid-19 lockdown,” Mhlanga said.

In anticipation of the reopening of schools, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said in a statement on Friday that “the first priority is the safety of all our learning institutions because we cannot afford to lose lives. Corpses can neither be taught nor teach.”

The union said it was concerned about the safety of teachers, lecturers, education support personnel, pupils and students.

“Above all, we are concerned about the readiness of the provincial departments with regard to the availability of health and safety essentials that have to be put in place in the learning institutions at least two weeks before any activity can take place.”

Sadtu said the union had a right to be concerned as “alert 4 level requires honesty, transparency and accuracy regarding readiness with precautionary measures”.

The union urged the departments to comply with several minimum requirements for the phasing-in or staggered approach to the reopening of learning institutions. These included:

• Institutions must be fumigated and disinfected

• The provision of proper sanitation, which means the delivery of water tankers to all institutions that don’t have running water

• The provision of temperature scanners for the daily screening of everyone

• The departments should ensure that learning institutions have enough soap, disinfectants and sanitisers and that hygiene is part of the curriculum

• The departments hire more staff to clean and sanitise classrooms, workshops and offices as frequently as possible

• The provision of desk screens to prevent pupils touching each other

• The provision of high quality masks to all, making it mandatory that everyone wears them all the time, inside and outside classrooms and workshops

• Social distancing of 1.2m to 1.5m inside classrooms and workshops should not be compromised

• The sharing of readers and textbooks be prohibited as it may pose a health risk

• The availability of psychosocial services to help learning institutions build resilience, to defeat the fear brought on by the virus; and

• The transportation of pupils and students must comply with social distancing regulations and modes of transport should be sanitised.

Sadtu said it hoped that the ministers would consider all the minimum requirements they had put on the table.

“We must not make a mistake, because this virus is brutal, and we should not undermine its viciousness and brutality. Only if we unite and stop competing, can we defeat this virus.”

Medical manager at Clairwood Hospital Dr Buyisiwe Mabaso.
Image: Orrin Singh
A KwaZulu-Natal doctor has offered a message of hope to all South Africans and health care workers who find themselves staring down the barrel of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Doctor Buyisiwe Mabaso, medical manager of Clairwood Hospital south of Durban, said the initial fear and anxiety that Covid-19 brought with it had somewhat run its course and was now being replaced by motivation.

Award-winning maskandi singer Thokozani Langa has proved to be a true role model when he donated food parcels to the needy people in his village of Kwagqikazi in Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal.

Langa donated food parcels with the help of Imbumba Foundation to 100 households, targeting the unemployed, orphans, elderly people and child-headed homes. With the focus of food donations in townships and urban areas, the maskandi muso, who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, wanted to keep his village eating during the national lockdown.

“I know this issue of lockdown is difficult to all people, those who are unemployed and those who survive through the grant,” Langa said. “I have noticed myself that food does not last long because kids and everyone is at home. I realised that for people who are unemployed it must be really difficult.

“I reached out and got Imbumba to assist me in helping the community. Working together with the traditional leader this was possible. When we delivered the food parcels I was so touched when I saw some of them crying tears of joy. As people who also support me as a musician I felt that I had to do something to help the situation.”

Founder of Imbumba Foundation, Richard Mabaso, said the donation in Ulundi was part of its programme called Soap for Hope. Mabaso, the man behind the Track4Mandela initiative, said before the country went on a national lockdown they had already began collecting sanitisers that will be donated to disadvantaged people. Since the coronavirus outbreak, Imbumba Foundation has donated 9,000 food parcels all over South Africa.

“We set ourselves a target to collect tons of litres of hand sanitisers, and food parcels to be given to elderly people, orphans, vulnerable, and child-headed households in informal settlements, townships and rural areas,” he said.

“We decided to partner with Thokozani Langa because he has been promoting his culture and where he comes from. We have been following him and we realised that he has been doing a lot for his community. We were willing to work with him because he is doing this for his village. We have also been working with traditional leaders who assist in identifying people who are in need of the food parcels. We are also going to be donating food parcels this week in Pongola and a village in Venda.”

Omuhle Gela’s Hacker Is Allegedly A Person Who Worked With HerOmuhle Gela’s accounts were recently hacked, allegedly by a person with whom she had close contact.
Image: Via Instagram
Omuhle Gela has released a statement explaining that a breach of trust in her inner circle led to her being hacked when “someone” who had access to her personal information created fake accounts that were used for malicious purposes.

The actress expressed how disappointed she was that the culprit was allegedly someone she trusted.

She said: “So long story short, unfortunately someone who had access to my personal information, passwords and devices because of our trusted work relationship, was unhappy with a little hiccup we had and went as far as accessing my social media platforms.

“(This person) texted a few people and direct messaged people on my personal accounts and other fake accounts using one of my personal email addresses and my devices she had access to because of work. They went as far as using personal information they knew about me to cause a stir, asked one person for money, and offended a few people.”

In the full statement shared on Instagram, the actress said she would be opening a case of defamation of character and was busy consulting her legal team.

“I’m getting legal help and finally putting this situation to bed. My twitter account has been retrieved and I no longer use the email address that was hacked. One of the fake accounts was linked to my device and to the culprit’s device. I’m working on changing my passwords. I’ll be opening a case of defamation of character. Apologies again to the victims of this unfortunate situation,” Omuhle said.

Many of her fans flooded her comment sections, encouraging her to stay strong.

Bonang Matheba came through with words of wisdom for Omuhle: “Make sure your staff sign NDAs. From the first minute they start work. Sorry about all this baby. Strength.”

Read the full statement below.

EFF leader Julius Malema wants the government to make increases to grants permanent.
Image: Twitter/EFF
EFF leader Julius Malema has called on the SA government to not do away with the unemployment income grant introduced to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 but rather increase it to R1,000 “if you want peace in this country”.

Malema was speaking during a Freedom Day online address on Monday.

He further called for the increases, introduced for the next six months in the old age grant and child-support grant, to be permanent and raised further.

Malema said the unemployment income grant, meant only for the next six months and set at R350, must be upped to R1,000 and continue beyond the Covid-19 crisis.

He suggested that the child grant be increased to R800 and the old age grant be topped up to R2,800.

President Cyril Ramaphosa last week announced increases to social grants for the next six months to counter the socio-economic impact of Covid-19.

additional R300 allocated to the child support grant in May, while R500 would be added per caregiver from June until October.

All other grants, including the old age and disability grant, would see beneficiaries receiving an additional R250 per month from May until October. Unemployed South Africans would get a R350 basic income grant during the same period, Ramaphosa announced.

Malema believes these interventions must be sustained beyond the Covid-19 impact and be increased.

He did not say where the money would come from.

Said Malema: “Since our formation as the EFF we have called for the doubling of the social grants for all people in all grants that are provided by the state.

“We welcome the increase of all the social grants and the introduction of the basic income grant for all unemployed people.

“Our demand in this regard is simple, these increases must be made permanent. The old age grant must never be reduced and must instead be increased to R2,800 per month. The child-support grant must increased to be R800 per month. The basic income grant must not be reversed but must instead be increased to R1,000 per month.”

Malema said it was important to up the grants beyond the coronavirus pandemic to increase buying power and combat poverty.

This, he added, was the logical thing for government to do, “if you want peace in this country”.
Among these, he said, there would be an