Ramaphosa & Trump have productive phone call about COVID-19
The US government this week increased its financial commitment to aid the country’s coronavirus efforts to about R410 million.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the African Union (AU) chairperson, revealed on Thursday that he had communicated with US President Donald Trump about the global coronavirus pandemic.
He said it had been a “productive call” and he’d used it to pass on “our condolences” to his government and the US people “on the devastation the virus has wrought”.
The US has become the epicentre of the virus and has so far suffered the highest total number of fatalities, 48,300 of the global total of 186,930, by Thursday evening.
Trump recently announced the US’s withdrawal from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which he accused of mismanaging the pandemic in allegedly being too China-centric and allowing China to allegedly get away with a lack of transparency on the facts about the pandemic in China, where the virus first emerged.
The South African government last week expressed “serious concern” that Trump decided to cut funding to the WHO with immediate effect; US funding accounts for 15% – about $400 million – of the WHO’s total budget.
“It is alarming that this very regrettable decision is announced as this deadly virus strikes Africa and the poorest and most vulnerable states,” said the South African government in a statement last Thursday.
Ramaphosa, however, said today that Trump had “pledged his support to South Africa and Africa in our fight against the coronavirus”.
The US government this week committed an additional R250 million to South Africa to aid in its Covid-19 efforts, bringing the total value of US aid to South Africa to R410 million.
According to a statement from the US embassy, the funding would used to support Centres for Disease Control and Preventions operations, along with lab work and surveillance efforts, be used for infection and prevention control, border health and vaccine preparedness and special studies related to Covid-19.
“This latest injection of assistance is in addition to the approximately $8.4 million (nearly R160 million) in health assistance to support South Africa’s COVID-19 response already committed through the US Agency for International Development,” the embassy explained. “It is an honour for the United States to partner in South Africa’s campaign to fight COVID-19,” they added.
Ramaphosa is still expected to address the nation on Thursday on how his government plans to relax lockdown measures that have brought most economic activities to a halt since the last week of March.
President Trump @POTUS has pledged his support to South Africa and to Africa in our fight against the #coronavirus
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 #StayHome (@CyrilRamaphosa) April 23, 2020
In other news – Uzalo actress Gugu Gumede hits back at a troll saying she uses too much makeup
The best way to stay away from unnecessary drama is to try to keep your comments to yourself whenever our celebrities share something on their social media platforms, rather to not say anything than criticizing.
Miss Gugu Gumede is known for her dolled up looks with fans going as far as asking the actress for a young tutorial on how to create the same looks at home. continue reading
Source: The Citizen
