Digital In brief South Africa

This week's top stories

Acumen Media has compiled stories that dominated the headlines this week:

  • President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster as coronavirus continues to spread. Strict measures were implemented, including visas being revoked, international travel to high-risk countries being banned, gatherings being limited to only 100 people, and schools shutting down.

  • A coronavirus WhatsApp helpline was also introduced and it reached over 1 million users within a week.
  • Restaurants, bars and shebeens are trying to keep up with new legislation that requires them to not operate after 6pm on weekdays.
  • In business news, DionWired shut its doors this week, the repo rate was cut by 100 percentage points, Capitec Bank lost R36bn in a single day and the Rand continued to drop amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
  • Coronavirus fake news continue to spread on social media and the government has vowed to prosecute those who generate share inaccurate news and information.
  • Abroad, China reported no further local coronavirus transmissions while Italy's coronavirus death toll continued to rise, overtaking total number of deaths so far registered in China.
  • And on a lighter note, Nando's took a swipe at a rival in a photo shared on Facebook and Twitter with this copy: "Turns out finger licking isn't good. Rather reach for the soap."
  • Let's do Biz