Inside December 11, 2020

Inside December 11, 2020.qxp_Layout 1 12/10/20 8:08 PM Page 4
•Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is leading the fight against Covid-19 in South Africa
Teenage clubbing and parties behind SA Covid surge
AS A second wave of Covid-19
is officially declared to have hit
South Africa, the nation’s
teenagers are being blamed for
its spread. The health minister
said most of the new surge of
infections were affecting those
aged between 15 and 19.
It began in one crowded
nightclub in Cape Town. The
next super-spreader event was at
a university in Nelson Mandela
Bay.
And now comes a series of
crowded parties to celebrate the
end of school exams, and the
school year.
The result, it’s now clear, is
that South Africa’s teenagers are
driving a second wave of infections.
Health Minister Zweli
Mkhize said 15 to 19 year olds
were the worst hit, and he
blamed drunken parties, where
people ignored social distancing
rules and the need to wear
masks.
The infection rate in some
areas is now rising more steeply
than during the country’s first
wave, back in July.
Other African nations, including
Zimbabwe and Kenya,
are also reporting new surges of
infections.
DAILY HERITAGE FRIDAY , DECEMBER 11, 2020
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
World news in 4 stories
Kenya MPs ordered to
pay back $10m housing
allowance
THE HIGH Court in
Kenya has ordered
the country's 416 lawmakers
pay back
1.2bn shillings ($10m;
£7.5m) after ruling
that the money had been unlawfully
given to them as housing allowances,
local media report.
The Parliamentary Service Commission
(PSC) had encroached on
the mandate of the Salaries and Remuneration
Commission (SRC) by
granting the lawmakers the allowance,
it ruled.
Each lawmaker would be required
to repay 2.8m shillings to the
government within the next year,
•Kenyan MPs are often accused of earning too much
Kenya's Star newspaper reported.
It is still unclear whether the ruling
would be challenged.
Kenyan MPs are among the
highest paid in the world, and have
often been accused by non-governmental
organisations of fleecing
taxpayers. BBC
•Homeless migrants lost possessions in the fire including ID documents
Barcelona fire: Deadly blaze engulfs
squatters' warehouse
A FIRE has engulfed an
abandoned warehouse occupied
by dozens of people
in a Barcelona suburb,
killing at least three and injuring
about 20 others.
Many of the squatters
using the three-storey
warehouse in Badalona
were migrants, who left behind
belongings.
Firefighters have found
three bodies and some of
the injured are in a critical
condition. The blaze has
been put out, but the building
is unstable.
Some survivors jumped
from the roof to escape the
flames.
More than 30 people
were rescued from the roof,
Spanish broadcaster Cadena
Ser reports.
The Badalona district
mayor, Xavier Garcia Albiol,
said at least 60 people
had managed to flee the
blaze.
It is not clear what
caused the fire, which
began at about 21:00 (20:00
GMT) on Wednesday in
the industrial area in northeastern
Barcelona, although
some survivors said
a burning candle had
started it.
Seven survivors are
being treated for serious injuries
in hospital and at
least 12 others have minor
injuries, medical sources
say. BBC
Popular Nigeria pastor assaults BBC team
A POPULAR Catholic priest in
Nigeria, Father Ejike Mbaka, and
some members of his church, assaulted
a BBC team and two others
at his complex in Emene town
in south-eastern Enugu State on
Wednesday evening.
BBC journalists Chioma
Obianinwa and Nnamdi Agbanelo,
as well as their driver, Ndubuisi
Nwafor, were accompanied by another
Catholic priest, Father Cajethan
Obiekezie and his assistant,
Solomon Orakam, to Father
Mbaka’s Adoration Ministry at
around 10:00 local time on
Wednesday.
Father Obiekezie had facilitated
an interview with Father Mbaka,
but it could not be immediately
held because he was preaching.
The BBC crew, led by Father
Obiekezie, moved to Father
Mbaka’s home after the church
service to conduct the interview at
around 17:00.
When Father Mbaka got home,
the journalists, who were waiting
in the car after Father Obiekezie
went to talk to him, were suddenly
• Father Ejike
Mbaka
surrounded by about 20 men.
According to Obianinwa, the
men seized their equipment and
threatened to kill them for writing
"negative reports about Mbaka".
“Mbaka asked us to wait until
the end of the programme for the
interview. The men outside his
house said BBC Igbo writes negative
things about Mbaka and
started beating Nnamdi, Solomon
and Ndubuisi. They gave them
heavy blows on their heads and all
over their body,” Obianinwa said.
BBC