A moment of clarity from John Steenhuisen who describes Covid-19 as the hill, but the economy the mountain. The leader of the Democratic Alliance reckons the real battle is still to come, and that if the president chooses policies promoting economic growth over pandering to the forces of state intervention and destruction, he can count on the support of the DA and its 85 MPs on the opposition benches.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in many countries around the world; the worry has always been that countries' health services will be overwhelmed. In Italy and New York in the United States, there was a stage that the hospitals could not cope with the influx of critically ill patients leading to difficult choices being made of who will be treated and who will die. In Wuhan in China and in London in the UK, the authorities have been able to respond quickly by building large hospitals and providing Intensive Care Units. As Covid-19 cases increase in South Africa, the big question is; will our health services cope? Professor Emeritus at Wits University in Critical Care Guy Richards who is advising at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital told Biznews that Cape Town is already under pressure and he says private hospitals are going to have to be brought on board if the public hospitals are overrun. He also comments on whether it is safe for children to go back to school and whether there are effective treatments for Covid-19. – Linda van Tilburg

In episode 37 of Inside Covid 19, on a day when South Africa’s confirmed infections rose above 19,000, Discovery’s chief actuary Emile Stipp and Prof Guy Richards, a critical care expert from Wits, assess the country’s tough road ahead; we revisit the Maritzburg ventilator-making company and find out its offer to produce the much needed life-saving equipment is being drowned in a sea of red tape; there are baby steps for a travel sector that was paralysed by coronavirus lockdowns; and an analysis of the role of super-spreading events like music concerts and soccer games. - Alec Hogg

In today's news headlines: * Big jump in Covid-19 cases in South Africa, with the Ministry of Health reporting a total number of 19,137 cases and the death toll reaching 369; * GroundUp news agency reports that the number of Covid-19 patients at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town is doubling every five days, and the hospital will not be able to cope unless something is done; * A South African group established to look at the human and economic costs of Covid-19 in South Africa has slammed Covid-19 forecasts and asks whether low- and middle-income countries really at significant risk to coronavirus - particularly SA where deaths, they say, will most likely not exceed 10,000 people; * The South African Reserve Bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the fourth time in four months in a bid to support an economy forecast to slump deeper into recession as a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus halted most activity, reports Bloomberg; and * Tsogo Sun Hotels, one of many tourism companies to be hit hard by the impact of the coronavirus, said on Thursday it could face a fall of up to 10% in full-year core earnings. Its share price has plunged by about 65% this year in response to Covid-19 shutdowns.

The small business sector is widely seen as a life blood of the economy, and it is no different for South Africa. In an interview with Biznews editor-in-chief Alec Hogg, Chief Executive of the Small Business Institute, John Dludlu, laments the fact that when the country was moved from Stage 5 to Stage 4 in its lockdown small businesses were left behind. As Dludlu proposes a risk adjusted approach to the reopening of the economy, he sees lives and livelihoods intertwined and says as adults who have rights, so too small business owners have responsibilities to ensure their and the safety of their employees. He also discusses the steps the SBI has taken to engage with government in an attempt to develop a voice for its 3.9 million members who need to be heard and allowed to move on in order to avoid a catastrophe in the country. - Nadya Swart

In episode 36 of Inside Covid-19, the Small Business Institute expects a major opening of the economy soon; Discovery Insure is rebating 25% of its members’ April premiums; We ask whether coronavirus killed open plan offices?; Donald Trump’s hydroxychloroquine endorsement gets another fan – Elon Musk; top global political risk consultancy Eurasia says multinationals are fretting about South Africa’s dimmed economic prospects; and we take a close look at Moderna, the company whose promising Covid-19 vaccine tests sent the price of US stocks – and oil – soaring. - Alec Hogg

Heather Sonn, chairperson of Steinhoff shows integrity as she steps down from the board after acknowledging she was unwittingly involved in irregularities two years ago. But the bigger question is why is this investigation taking so long? Biznews founder Alec Hogg dives into the Markus Jooste leftovers with South Africa's favourite market analyst David Shapiro. - Vanessa Marks

In today's news headlines: * Health minister Zweli Mkhize has moved to quash optimism that the Covid-19 lockdown is going to be fully lifted any time soon. The rate of new coronavirus infections in South Africa has to slow in line with World Health Organisation guidelines first - and his team expects the peak only in July or August, with 40,000 deaths in November; * A fresh outbreak of Covid-19 in China's North East has prompted a lockdown to contain the spread of the virus among 100m; * Naspers' Bitcoin company Luno is expanding operations as traders pile into the cryptocurrency; * Platinum coins featuring wildlife are being snapped up by investors looking for alternative assets; and * Ninety One, the asset manager that split from Investec, saw its share price jump on the back of a healthy set of first-year financial results.

In today's news headlines: * As South Africa enters its 55th day in lock down, government has announced plans to open schools in June, starting with grades 7 and 12; * Health Department Acting Director General Anban Pillay says many parts of the country could move to alert level 3 of the lockdown as early as this week; * Gauteng will move to a less restrictive lockdown level at the beginning of June, premier David Makhura told a virtual sitting of the Gauteng provincial legislature. And provincial leaders in the Western Cape - which has the highest rate of Covid-19 infections - say that province is also ready to ease restrictions to level 3; * Between 900,000 and 2m jobs will be lost in Gauteng as a result of the Covid-19 shutdown; * Covid-19 containment is taking its toll particularly on the poorest South Africans. This has been underscored by Premier Alan Winde, who says that the Western Cape’s call centre is receiving a staggering 14,000 calls a day from desperate people; and * SA Express goes bust. Comair might survive business rescue.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that all schools in the country, including the independent schools in the metropolitan areas will resume from the 1st of June in phases, starting with Grades 7 and 12. Teachers will arrive on the 25th of May and a new school calendar for the year will be gazetted soon. The announcement follows after the ministry received several submissions from parent and teacher organisations and Minister Motshekga said the government looked at how other countries re-opened their schools. She said the Council of Education Ministers of the provinces agreed that all provinces should move at the same pace to ensure that nobody was left behind. The minister also revealed that 1,577 schools have been broken into during the lockdown; it includes 463 schools in Kwazulu-Natal and 366 in Gauteng. - Linda van Tilburg

London-based Darias Jonker is leading global political risk consultancy Eurasia's director for Africa. In this insightful podcast, Jonker explains why multinationals who have operations in SA and foreign portfolio investors in the country's stocks and bonds are "very worried" at a continuation of the lockdown and the damage it is doing to the economy. He says a bailout package from the IMF is now a matter of when not if and unpacks why president Cyril Ramaphosa has fallen into line with ANC internal dynamics rather than pursuing an approach which scientists and economists believe would be best for the economy. - Alec Hogg

Alec Hogg speaks to Chief Executive of Ocean Basket and spokesperson for the Restaurant Collective, Grace Harding, about South Africa's strict lockdown and the enormous strain which it has placed upon the country's restaurant industry. From banks to landlords, Harding discuses the different responses and levels of support the restaurant industry has received. She emphasises the effort that restaurants have placed into developing a Covid-safe protocol for the industry that supports up to two million people - all in the hopes that the sector won't have to wait until Level 1 to re-open. In a desperate plea she states: "With a hand on my heart... We will not make it!" - Nadya Swart

Professor Corné van Walbeek, director of the research unit of the economics of excisable products at the University of Cape Town, has done extensive research on how the ban of cigarettes has affected South Africa. The good news is 16% of smokers have quit, but the bad news is while the sale of cigarettes continues undeterred for the remaining smokers, supplied mostly by illicit networks, the excise duties may go unpaid. Prof Van Walbeek emphasises that the cost to society in terms of the loss of revenue for the state and specifically also the entrenchment of these illicit networks, is a real problem that SA - and quite possibly the taxpayer - may be paying for very many years to come. - Vanessa Marks

A bumper edition of Inside Covid-19 with good news as the first human coronavirus vaccine tests deliver promising results while other medical treatments are being uncovered at a rapid clip; DA leader John Steenhuisen explains why SA’s official opposition political party is going to court to stop what it calls "lockdown irrationality"; we hear from the UCT prof whose research shows the cigarette ban has been a disaster for everyone except the underworld; concerns that SA’s 7 000 sit-down restaurants and the 1m people they support face impossible odds of survival if current regulations continue; and as the lockdown slowly eases in SA, nations around the world are fretting about a possible second wave of infections. - Alec Hogg

In today's news headlines: * The first coronavirus vaccine to be tested in people appears to be safe and able to stimulate an immune response against the virus, its manufacturer, Moderna, announced on Monday; * As of late Monday, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa had reached 15,515 with 1,160 new cases. Less than 300 Covid-19 deaths have been reported by the health ministry since the start of the outbreak; * As many as 80,000 small businesses ranging from farmers to craft brewers may be on the verge of collapse as a direct result of the alcohol ban, warns Richard Rushton, CEO of wine and spirits manufacturer Distell Group; * President Cyril Ramaphosa says he welcomes legal challenges to South Africa’s strict lockdown rules, in his regular email to the nation; * The R200bn loan guarantee scheme introduced by South Africa to keep small and medium size businesses from folding in the Covid-19 shutdown has been given the stamp of approval by an important ratings agency, Moody's; and * Sasol stood out among the best performers on the Johannesburg stock exchange at the beginning of the week, with its share price gaining about 12% by the end of the trading session on Monday. Gold companies were among the worst performers, even though there is high demand for safe-haven-asset gold.

South Africa seems to have its own Sheldon Cooper. Like the physics genius from The Big Bang Theory fame, Pretoria youngster Hjalmar Rall graduated with honours in physics in his teens, he reveres Prof Richard Feynman and hope to one day be top in his field. Home-schooled after getting bored from normal school, Hjalmar graduated this year from the University in Pretoria in an online ceremony due to the Covid-19 lockdown. He tells Biznews' Linda van Tilburg he has his eye on attending one of the Top 20 universities in the world to pursue his love for and dream of quantum physics.

As we emerge from our homes, blinking in the light and ready to get back to work, everyone is asking how quickly our economies can recover from their Covid-19 crunches. Some believe that recovery will be rapid as restrictions ease and that we can quickly resume our previous levels of employment and growth. Others are more circumspect, predicting a slower growth path. And some are pessimistic, arguing we may take years or even decades to get back on track. In this episode, which features content from the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast, we hear from economist Richard Koo, who is famous for his work on the Japanese economy and the role that debt has played in its long slump. Here, he explains why he thinks we could be facing a tough, global balance sheet recession and why recovery could take far longer than we think.

In today's news headlines: * The cigarette ban a ‘spectacular failure’, with nine out of 10 smokers breaking the law during lockdown and the illicit trade flourishing, UCT research finds; * The Eastern Cape plans to offer employers R10,000 for every manufacturing job saved; * SAA continues to suck up billions of taxpayers' funds, even though it is grounded and being managed by business rescue specialists; * As the Covid-19 pandemic risks dragging Africa into the worst economic recession on record, governments from Ghana in the west to Rwanda in the east have started to ease restrictions, reports Bloomberg; and * Covid-19 has shaken up stock markets and wiped out asset values for many, but wealthy South Africans still feature on the UK’s rich list. These include Nicky Oppenheimer, whose family has donated generously to SA efforts to prop up the economy and help the poor, and short-term insurance entrepreneur Douw Steyn and first African in space Mark Shuttleworth.

The captain of the Springboks Siya Kolisi is a man known for humility and he knows just what to say in the big moments. With food and hunger, and the needs of so many poor communities increasing due to the lockdown in South Africa; he is again in tune with what the nation needs. He and his wife Rachel have decided to switch the focus of the foundation that they were setting up from rugby to help those in need during the pandemic. As Rachel told Biznews, Siya experienced hunger first hand when he grew up. - Linda van Tilburg

In today's news headlines: * The Western Cape now has more than half of the 12,074 confirmed cases nationwide and in recent days contributed about 90% of new infections, according to the government; * The Reserve Bank is expected to cut interest rates next week, in a move aimed at stimulating economic recovery; *  Investors appear to be unimpressed with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s update on Wednesday night on government thinking on how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. This was reflected in a decline in the value of the rand and a drop in the FTSE/JSE All Share Index, says Bloomberg; * The DA will file a lawsuit Thursday challenging the rationality of the curfew and restrictions on exercise and ecommerce, according to John Steenhuisen, the party’s acting leader. Another case will be filed on Friday contesting the constitutionality of the nation’s Disaster Management Act; * The Comrades Marathon, that was due to take place on June 14 in South Africa, has been added to the list of sporting events around the globe scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic; and * The MTN share price dropped on news it is going to curb spending.

Gavin Hudson, the Chief Executive of Tongaat Hulett, discusses the recent ‘standstill’ of the transaction between Tongaat Hulett and Barloworld due to the latter’s call of a material adverse change (MAC) event for the full year due to Covid-19. Hudson expresses his disbelief that such a MAC event is present while remaining positive that, whichever way the deal goes, Tongaat Hulett will continue. - Nadya Swart

In episode 34 of Inside Covid 19, we have highlights from Cyril Ramaphosa's address on the easing in South Africa's lockdown regulations; answers for the millions of Vitality members wondering whether Comair going into business rescue means the end of their cheap flights; South Africa’s only living Nobel prizewinning scientist Prof Michael Levitt’s scorecard on how his former homeland is handling the crisis; a crisis of a different kind as Airbnb entrepreneurs – who own 22,000 properties in Cape Town alone - struggle to stay afloat; and the invasive measures companies are applying on the office and home lives of their workers. - Alec Hogg

In today's news headlines: * President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the lockdown is expected to ease further by the end of May. He apologised for government short-comings but stopped short of allowing South Africans to buy cigarettes, booze and flipflops; * The Democratic Alliance has urged the president to axe the minister responsible for trade and industry for a "frankly mad" set of regulations about what South Africans can and cannot buy during the Covid-19 containment lockdown; * A retired judge has slammed South Africa’s lockdown, saying it no longer passes the rule of law tests. Rex Van Schalkwyk, Chairman of the FMF Rule of Law Board of Advisors and a former Supreme Court Judge, examines the house arrest to which the entire population has been subjected for the past several weeks, finding the lockdown remains illegitimate, and therefore tyrannical; * The National Treasury will put forward a fresh budget on June 24th that takes into account a R500bn stimulus package aimed at easing the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak; and * South African estate agents are warning sellers to brace for property selling prices to plunge by 20-30%.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says that most of the country will be placed on alert level 3 at the end of the may following a consultation process with stakeholders, but certain hotspots that have the highest rates of infection will remain on level 4. Mr Ramaphosa said there will also be changes to level 4 regulations to permit business activity in the retail space and ecommerce, and the restrictions on exercise will be reduced. He said there have been several projections about the possible path that the disease could have taken without "swift and decisive action" and that South Africa's statistics compares favourably to many other countries: - Without the lockdown and other measures South Africa could have had 80,000 infections instead of the present; - 219 people in South Africa have died; at a similar stage the United States recorded 22,000 deaths and 19,000 people died from Covid-19 in the United Kingdom; - The level of infection in South Africa is 181 people per million compared to that of the UK, Spain, Italy and Singapore that have between 2,400 and 4,600 coronavirus cases per million people; - Out of 12,074 confirmed cases, South Africa has 4,745 recoveries; - There are nearly 25,000 additional beds available for quarantine; - Substantial quantities of personal protective equipment have been procured for health workers; and - 9 million people have been screened by field workers and 370,000 coronavirus tests have been conducted. The President admitted that mistakes had been made and committed his cabinet to be transparent and to engage and consult with South Africans. - Linda van Tilburg

In the volatile global markets, induced by the coronavirus pandemic, SA’s favourite market analyst David Shapiro fields questions about Sasol, Telkom, the popularity of Prosus and companies in the 5G environment. Shapiro himself has taken a bet on Salesforce.com, which for him ticks all the right boxes on 5G, ESG, and the fast transmission and analysing of data. He calls for patience in the next few months as the upside will take some time to show. In this lively Biznews Rational Radio webinar, Shapiro and editor-in-chief Alec Hogg discusses from the depreciation of the rand, offshore investments and tourism to energy and converging tech and health stocks. - Stanley Karombo