Publisher

Millions of South Africans over the age of 35 have signed up for their Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine as the country’s vaccination programme continues to expand to include more categories of people.

From mid-July, the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) has been opened for registration for those over 35 years of age.

Within a day of the EVDS opening for this age group, more than a million of them had already registered for their vaccines and the number has been growing ever since.

As South Africans struggle to deal with the aftermath of the unrest that affected some parts of the country recently, government is hard at work putting together measures to help people and businesses.

During an address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said government will take steps to support households and help businesses restock and rebuild.

“We are in the process of providing immediate food relief to households. We are targeting areas affected by the looting and where people have no access to food,” he said.

Starting and building a business is a lot like raising a family. It takes time, patience, constant support and consistent nurturing from infancy to maturity.

For many business owners, seeing a business that you grew from scratch struggling to survive, or even being forced to close its doors, is heartbreaking.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has sadly been the situation facing many businesses both large and small, not just in our country but around the world.

Ntsako Shipalana is not only a successful chicken farmer, she is also giving back to the industry by training others.

Shipalana, from Tzaneen in Limpopo, owns Olori Chickens, which she established in 2017.

Many girls no longer have to miss school during their menstrual cycle as they are receiving sanitary pads for free.

The growing need for affordable sanitary pads prompted Matefo Morakeng to start her own business, Dear Bella, in the Free State.

Morakeng established the company, which she named after her mother, in 2018.

Dr Perekeme Mutu has achieved what not many could even dream possible. He recently graduated with not one, but two university degrees – achieved simultaneously.

South Africans have come out out in full force to support each other, clean up and rebuild businesses that were affected by the civil unrest in July.

The country went through a difficult period recently, when many malls, shopping centres, factories, warehouses and businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng were looted. Some were even torched and burnt to the ground.

While the government and private sector were assessing the damage and putting together recovery plans, thousands of ordinary South Africans teamed up to clean up and start rebuilding what had been lost.

A Limpopo primary school principal has received global recognition.

Rathaga Primary  School principal, Dr Ngwako Sebo­petsa, recently received the Global Principal Award from India-based Alert Knowledge Service for excellence in school leadership and management skills.

Final-year nursing students have been trained to vaccinate the public against COVID-19.

The Western Cape Provincial Government has increased its efforts to roll-out the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccination programme by training final-year nursing students as vaccinators.