Sharp rise in SA Covid-19 deaths, but kids may not spread it; Edgars, Jet sell-off; Van Loggerenberg court victory; Rand

By Jackie Cameron

• South Africa has recorded a sharp rise in Covid-19 deaths, with 82 cases reported on Monday. This takes the death toll to more than 1,000 of the more than 50,000 cases reported in the country. The Western Cape, which has the highest infection rate, reported 55 deaths, followed by the Eastern Cape with 26 and one death in KwaZulu-Natal, says the government.
• Children under 10 do not appear to spread Covid-19 to each other. The Wall Street Journal’s Bojan Pancevski told Alec Hogg in an interview that the European experience has shown that there had been no cases of children transmitting Covid-19 to each other or their parents. Pancevski said science appears to point to a receptor that enables the virus to enter humans that children under the age of 10 do not have. For more on that listen to Inside Covid-19 with Alec Hogg, who shares the latest insights and analysis on the pandemic.
• Administrators in charge of Edcon want to sell parts or all of the country’s oldest non-food retailer under a plan that may lead to significant job losses, after the company filed for a form of bankruptcy protection in April. Edcon has three main businesses – the iconic 91-year old department store chain Edgars, budget clothing retailer Jet and a customer engagement division Thank U which sells insurance, offers credit and runs the sector’s biggest customer loyalty programme with over 14 million subscribers. Fifteen parties have shown interest in buying all or parts of the businesses and they have until June 30 to submit a binding offer, according to a “business rescue” plan released early on Tuesday.
• Former South African Revenue Service (Sars) executive Johann van Loggerenberg has welcomed the Pretoria High Court’s order setting aside the Inspector-General of Intelligence report into the so-called Sars rogue unit. The report – which was fabricated – claimed that an illegal unit was established at the revenue service and was used to carry out rogue operations. It was used to accuse a number of officials of spying, including Van Loggerenberg and former Sars Commissioner Pravin Gordhan. Van Loggerenberg’s lawyer Bernard Hotz is quoted as saying that the Minister of State Security and the current inspector-general agreed that the report must be set aside.
• The Rand has strengthened on US dollar weakness. A TreasuryONE currency dealer said: “The USD is on the back foot currently and the emerging market currencies like the ZAR are benefiting from the USD weakness. The USD strengthened a lot whilst the world went into lockdown and the market got frightened about what was going to happen.” For more on the rand, see the latest report on currency markets on BizNews.com.