The coronavirus pandemic has presented a huge challenge for countries around the world - for many it means a complete reset of their economies. Discovery's executive and co-founder Adrian Gore looks at the post-coronavirus future in this wide-ranging commentary which moves from SMEs to South Africa's rating as one of the top five governments in handling the crisis. He sketches the possible and plausible scenarios in which the world could and should move post-Covid-19, including the economic and social implications of the pandemic on millions and millions of lives and livelihoods. One crucial shift he sees happening post-Covid-19 is a rush to online, from healthcare to education, dating and even banking. - Stanley Karombo

Olympic swimming gold medalist Ryk Neethling now finds himself in the vineyards caught between Stellenbosch, Franschoek and Paarl. He's the marketing director and a shareholder of Val de Vie. In this podcast with Biznews publisher Alec Hogg, Neethling discusses a new retirement village, which is right in the heart of the upmarket estate. He describes the motivation behind Evergreens as being geared towards community and social connections - the key to longevity - and explains how the retirement village is based on the Life Right model - which is essentially a long-term lease. Partnering with Evergreen is Val de Vie and PSG, and Neethling says it promises to be ‘more than what the brochure says’. - Nadya Swart

In what is clearly a difficult and murky period for markets, SA's favourite market analyst David Shapiro believes that patience will be required in the next few months as the upside will take some time. - Nadya Swart

In today's news headlines: * South African new car sales plunged to a record low in April. National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa data show only 105 cars were sold in April, a drop of 99.6%, reports Bloomberg; * Mike Schussler, chief economist at Economists.co.za, says consumer spending - which makes up about 60% of Gross Domestic Product - will be a "disaster" this year; * South Africa’s tax revenue losses could be as much as R285bn in the current fiscal year, the commissioner of the revenue services said on Tuesday in a parliamentary briefing; and * Covid-19 containment has taken down more businesses, with airline Comair entering voluntary business rescue, gaming player Phumelela warning it may be heading the same way soon and media company Caxton giving up on its magazine titles.

UPDATE: The headline has been changed to make it clear that neither Sygnia nor any other investors funding the development of the vaccine will profit from it during the pandemic. The return on investment will only come in future years - IF the vaccine works. We sincerely apologise for the previous headline creating the wrong impression. - Editor  Sygnia founder and CEO Magda Wierzycka, is among a handful of SA business leaders who truly sees the world as her oyster. Well known for her forward thinking, she in 2015 bought shares in OSI, a company that transforms patents from Oxford University into viable businesses for 25% ownership. Within the OSI stable is Vaccitech, a company that has been developing a vaccine for MERS virus and has put them ahead of the Covid-19 vaccine race. Sygnia, the single biggest shareholder of OSI, is well placed to reap the rewards once the vaccine is made commercial. - Vanessa Marks

In episode 29 of Inside Covid-19, a brilliant commentary by Discovery’s co-founder Adrian Gore who opens a window into our post-coronavirus future - one with plenty of bright spots; Sygnia’s founder Magda Wiercyzka explains how her company became the biggest individual shareholder in Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine; we find out how the cruise liner industry spread and hid the coronavirus; and look at the way consumer brands are betting on whether new shopping habits are here to stay.

This episode of Rational Radio features Magda Wierzycka and Michael Jordaan along with regulars David Shapiro and GG Alcock.

In today's news headlines: * President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended strict and strange lockdown rules imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus as citizens grow increasingly irked over seemingly illogical restrictions; * Business entrepreneur Mike Abel joins media personality Gareth Cliff in penning an open letter to the president to re-think the finer details of the Covid-19 containment lockdown; * Absa has granted nearly R6bn in #Covid19 virus relief to about 375.000 account holders; * Mobile operator Vodacom Group said on Monday it has switched on Africa’s first live 5G mobile network in three cities in South Africa: Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg; and * Bonds gained and the rand rallied, after South Africa’s exit from a major global fixed-income index was finalised, as a key risk disappeared.

Bryan Biehler of Huizemark says the industry is on freeze frame as most of the supply chain remains on lockdown until stage 3. Even if the ruling for the industry can be brought forward to stage 4, technology and skill sets currently employed by the industry are ill prepared for the new normal. The result is a potential drop of up to 20% in house prices and 30% of agents losing their jobs. - Vanessa Marks

In this episode of Rational Radio, Alec Hogg apart from the stream of questions from on-attendance Biznews Premium subscribers, regulars David Shapiro and GG Alcock have plenty to chew on as former FNB boss turned startup investor Michael Jordaan picks the economy's post-Covid-19 winning and losing sectors; and Sygnia founder Magda Wierzycka explains how her company has ended up as the biggest shareholder in the fund which owns a chunk of Oxford University's coronavirus vaccine - currently undergoing human trials and widely tipped to be the first to deliver an antidote to the virus.

In episode 28 of Inside Covid-19; a whole new ball game with heightened infection risks as SA children return to schools; House prices set to take a 10-20% hit when market reopens; Africa’s low infection rates are no reason for complacency; A nasty lockdown side-effect as mental illnesses, addictions on the rise; and promising developments on the drug front from AstraZeneca and Gilead. - Alec Hogg

In today's news headlines: * As South Africa’s lockdown restrictions were eased slightly at the weekend, many were out enjoying early morning exercise. But public health officials have urged vigilance on social distancing. At least 123 people had died of Covid-19 in South Africa by Saturday, with the highest number of deaths reported in the Western Cape; * A drug used to fight the ebola virus has received emergency approval to treat Covid-19 patients in the US. Gilead Science's antiviral drug remdesivir reduces recovery time in hospital, according to an early study; * South Africa’s Covid-19 containment measures could lead to 7m job losses by the end of this year and the economy could contract by more than 16% in 2020, Treasury estimates showed; and * South Africa is seeking to create a new thriving national airline out of the ashes of SAA, which is technically insolvent and on the brink of being placed into liquidation. An ideal replacement for South African Airways would have both public and private owners, maintain the country’s trade connections and make a profit, the Department of Public Enterprises said in a statement.

Covid-19 has highlighted the good, the bad, and the ugly. We’ve developed potential vaccines and started testing them in record time and launched an intense global response to the pandemic. At the same time, however, we can’t seem to make enough surgical masks or a reliable antibody test. In this episode, featuring content from the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast, we look at what it will take to get a vaccine and the gear that we need now.

In the race for a new vaccine against Covid-19, Oxford University’s Jenner Institute has emerged as the front runner among 90 institutions who are developing a vaccine against the virus. The Director of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, prof Adrian Hill told Biznews that the institute was able to move very rapidly into clinical trials because of their experience in developing an Ebola vaccine. Prof Hill also said at the end of March that he was confident that they could do it much faster than the 12 to 18 months that most scientists predicted. This week the institute indicated that they were hoping to get some signal by the middle of June on whether it was working on humans and that they have partnered with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for the manufacturing and distribution of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, if their vaccine worked. But AstraZeneca has decided to push ahead with the manufacture of the inoculation and will be producing millions of doses of the trial coronavirus vaccine even before the research is complete in a major show of confidence in the Oxford product. In this news clip published with permission from NBC; the Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot tells Richard Engel that the vaccine will be made available during the pandemic at cost price. – Linda van Tilburg

In today's news headlines: * As Covid-19 lockdown eases from 1 May, a strict ban on tobacco sales remains in force, angering many citizens. Cabinet minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has defended the move, saying “the way tobacco is shared does not allow for social distancing,” and encourages the spread of the virus; * The International Monetary Fund expects South Africa’s economy to contract by 5.8% in 2020 but rebound to 4% growth in 2021; * Comair joins other airline companies in trouble, warning investors that the grounding of South African air travel has put its finances in a precarious position, with the carrier preparing for at least five more months before it can resume flights; * Tributes have poured in for Denis Goldberg, a Rivonia trialist who has died at the age of 87.; * It’s the end of an era for Jane Raphaely's women’s magazines, with the publisher of Cosmopolitan, House & Leisure, Good Housekeeping and Women on Wheels closing its doors permanently after 38 years in business; and * Looking at performance on the Johannesburg stock exchange, shares are on track for a record month, says Bloomberg.

Has Eskom just experienced it’s Volkswagen moment - being caught out for under-reporting carbon emissions? Chris Yelland, the go-to guy on Eskom and all things energy related, has reported on a non-compliance notice that The Centre for Environmental Rights brought to light. Eskom, already fraught with loadshedding issues, has yet another battle to fight. All while on the sidelines the power utility had to temporarily close its Camden power plant in Mpumulanga because the dam where it stores the ash from burning coal could burst and endanger local residents. - Vanessa Marks

South Africa's townships and the associated informal, Kasi economy have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown. So the government announcement that the lockdown will be eased starting May 1 comes as a welcome relief for informal sector guru GG Alcock who warned at the beginning of the lockdown that it would be dangerous to deprive the informal sector from their livelihoods and placing people who now had to travel and stand in long queues at risk of contracting the virus. As a guest on Biznews' inaugural Rational Radio webinar, GG - who says he was named after a government truck, in fact a bulldozer - expounds how the loss in income and the increase in social grants will change the family dynamics of the tight-knit communities in SA's vast townships. - Stanley Karombo

In episode 27 of Inside Covid-19, SA's infections and deaths increase by the most in any 24 hour period as the exponential growth in the virus starts taking hold. We feature a wide ranging interview with Dr Jonny Broomberg, CEO of Vitality Health International, who says the data from all over the world says we’re right to fear Covid-19 and SA’s detailed plans and precautions are no overkill but fully justified; also, more on the way the coronavirus is exposing unsustainable societal fractures; Nobel prize winner Bob Shiller explores the impact of Covid-19 inspired fear on the human psyche; and a look at what Wuhan shows our cities will be like in future. - Alec Hogg

More details have been released of the regulations that will be gazetted for Level 4 of the lockdown by Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Zuma said that the government received 70,000 submissions, more than 800 came from the business sector. She said most of the submissions were from people asking that exercise should be allowed. Included in the regulations are the following: - People would be allowed to exercise including cycling, running or walking but only in the morning from 6am - 9am in their own neighbourhoods within a 5km radius. - Workers will be allowed to travel to work but have to be home from 8pm to 5 am the next morning. It they need to travel outside of these hours, they would need a permit. - Commuting with buses, trains and taxis to get to work will be permitted but no movement to provinces. - Movement between the provinces remain prohibited, except for people who have been caught away from their home province who would be granted a one-off allowance to return. - Agriculture products like wine and wool can be transported to ports for export and imports can resume. - Foreigners who have been stuck in South Africa, would now be allowed to be repatriated. - For workers of the industries that would now open; strict health protocols must be put in place, which should be communicated to workers and the number of workers that arrive, should be phased in. - The Government has decided to ban the sale of cigarettes again because of safety concerns around sharing what the minister called a 'zol' which increases the chance of transmission. - The prohibition against alcohol sales remain in place "as very few people enjoy drinking alone and selling home brews to neighbours is banned." The easing of movement will only be allowed with strict safety precautions in place. - Linda van Tilburg

The constant bad news about Covid-19 and the fear that the virus with a serious sting in the tail could affect the people you love, is leading to anxiety and many sleepless nights for many of us. If you were a bad sleeper; the worries about the coronavirus could make the situation even worse. Adding to the pressure, are the stories in magazines and on the internet about a link between sleep deprivation and bad health including dementia. Biznews tracked down a South African born psychiatrist , Dr Hugh Selsick who runs the Insomnia Clinic in Bloomsbury in London to provide more clarity on insomnia and he shares valuable insights into some of the myths associated with sleep. Dr Selsick’s approach has been described as ‘remarkable’ by a, fellow journalist, Simon Parkin from the Guardian. – Linda van Tilburg

In today's news headlines: * The Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announces that 2,000 people have recovered from the Covid-19 virus and about 90 people of the 2,800 people have died. And the Education department has unveiled the details of the phased return of pupils to schools from next week; * The Covid-19 pandemic has derailed the implementation of an Africa-wide free-trade agreement from July 1; * Covid-19 will wipe more than 30% off tax collections. That, and financing some of the stimulus package, will increase the shortfall on the national budget and increase borrowing requirements, says Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni; and * Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said the government would “do whatever it takes” to ensure the survival of the the government’s Land & Agricultural Development Bank, the biggest lender to South African farmers, as it struggles to meet it debts.

Prof Alan Whiteside is becoming one of the Covid-19 go-to-guys. He began his career as a freelance journalist, evolving it to eventually becoming Director and Professor at HEARD, the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division. Years of extensive work on HIV and AIDS around Africa gives him an insightful perspective on the Covid-19 epidemic, the problems when fighting an invisible enemy and how South Africa might have an upper hand. An insightful discussion follows with Biznews founder Alec Hogg. - Lizzie Cornwell

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken many victims, but there are also winners, and market analyst David Shapiro is certainly upbeat about the markets at the moment. Looking among others at Sasol's performance this week Shapiro admits that you really can't explain markets, and although bouncing from very oversold positions, he is still not convinced to buy into the company. What will matter hugely going forward is how companies behaved in this Covid-19 era and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues will continue to feature strongly in forcing companies to be responsible. In this inaugural Biznews Rational Radio webinar Shapiro and editor-in-chief Alec Hogg discuss from retailers to listed property to energy, and from a listener even converging tech and health stocks. - Nadya Swart

The most recent memory I have of the South African Rand falling through the floor against the British Pound was sitting at Newlands cricket stadium. The Proteas were playing against the English, and all the Barmy Army could sing about was '1 pound, 1 pint'. Fast forward and the currency has fallen to similar levels again but One Touch Investments founder Arran Kerkvliet says this time it's different. An own goal in Nenegate fuelled the previous sell off, this time it looks structural. Arran spoke to Biznews founder Alec Hogg to look at investment opportunities on the back of this weakness. - Stuart Lowman

The gold price hit its highest level in eight years this week, so is now the time to invest? On the one hand the sage of Omaha Warren Buffett says "it (gold) doesn't do anything but sit there and look at you." But gold is like any investment circle, it has both its bears and bulls, with one such bull Alan Demby, the owner of the South African Gold Exchange and its retail outlet the Scoin shop. In this interview with Biznews founder Alec Hogg, Demby explores the different avenues an investor can undertake when investing in gold. Arguing why it should make up a portion of the basket, but shouldn't be the only egg. - Stuart Lowman