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A32 world news
Diabierna 4 September 2020

Members of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers'
Union (NEHAWU) protest at the government's Union Buildings
in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020.
Associated Press
South African

healthcare workers Chilean and Lebanese rescuers search in the rubble of a building that was collapsed in last

protest, threaten strike month's massive explosion, after getting signals there may be a survivor under the rubble, in Bei-
rut, Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020.
Associated Press
By MOGOMOTSI disease, according to official
MAGOME figures from last month. A month on, signal in Beirut
Associated Press The demonstrators in Pre-
PRETORIA, South Af- toria, the capital, marched in
rica (AP) — South African front of the offices of Presi- rubble raises hope for survivor
healthcare workers have pro- dent Cyril Ramaphosa at the
tested against poor working Union Buildings. They held
conditions and urged the up placards, some reading By BILAL HUSSEIN there is less than 1% hope, a month ago, the Lebanese
government to end corrup- “Thank You Frontline Work- Associated Press we should keep on looking,” military said it discovered
tion in the purchase of CO- ers” and “Remove Corrupt BEIRUT (AP) — A pulsing said Youssef Malah, a civil more than 4 tons of ammoni-
VID-19 personal protective Officials.” South Africa has signal was detected Thursday defense worker. He said his um nitrate near Beirut’s port
equipment. The protesters been rocked by allegations of from under the rubble of a men would continue work- on Thursday.
gathered Thursday in Preto- corruption related to the pro- Beirut building that collapsed ing throughout the night, According to the military,
ria and Cape Town, charging curement of personal protec- during the horrific port ex- adding that the work was ex- army experts were called in
that the lives of healthcare tive equipment. plosion in the Lebanese capi- tremely sensitive. for an inspection and found
workers are endangered as President Cyril Ramapho- tal last month, raising hopes A Chilean volunteer, howev- 4.35 tons of the dangerous
some health facilities have sa’s spokeswoman, Khusela there may be a survivor still er, said their equipment iden- chemical in four containers
inadequate supplies of pro- Diko, stepped down after buried there. tifies breathing and heartbeat stored near the port. There
tective equipment like surgi- being linked to irregular pur- The effort unfolded after the from humans, not animals, were no details on the ori-
cal masks. chases. Her husband’s com- sniffer dog belonging to the and it detected a sign of a hu- gin of the chemicals or their
The union leading the dem- pany allegedly charged more Chilean search and rescue man. The worker who iden- owner,
onstrations, the National than five times the regulated team first detected some- tified himself as Francesco The military statement said
Education, Health and Allied amount for surgical masks thing as the team was going Lermonda said it is rare, but that customs officials had
Workers’ Union, has threat- and sanitizers. through Gemmayzeh Street not unheard of, for someone called in the army to inspect
ened that its 200,000 pub- Gauteng provincial health in Beirut and rushed toward to survive under the rubble containers at a facility near
lic workers will go on strike minister, Bandile Masuku, the rubble of a building. The for a month. the port, where they found
on Sept. 10 if their issues was also forced to step down street was one of the hardest- The past few weeks have 4.35 tons of ammonium ni-
are not addressed. A wide- due to allegations he was hit in the Aug. 4 explosion. been extremely hot in Leba- trate. It said army experts
spread strike by healthcare linked to the irregular pro- The team then used audio non, including a current heat were “dealing with the mate-
workers would cause serious curement of health supplies. detection equipment for wave with high levels of hu- rial,” an apparent reference
problems for South Africa’s The country’s Special Inves- signals or heartbeat, and de- midity. Every now and then, that it was being destroyed.
hospitals, which have been tigating Unit said it is cur- tected what could be a pulse the Chilean team asked peo- The port chief, Bassem al-
stretched to the limit by the rently probing more than 20 of 18 to 19 beats per minute. ple on the streets, including a Qaisi, told reporters on
coronavirus. Although the cases of corruption related The origin of the pulsing crowd of journalists watch- Thursday that there are 43
number of new confirmed to the contracts to provide signal was not immediately ing the operation, to turn off containers containing flam-
cases of COVID-19 has de- health supplies to the gov- known but it set off a frantic their mobiles and stay quiet mable material left in the
creased, South Africa is still ernment. search and raised new hope. for five minutes so as not to area, adding that the army
reporting more than 2,000 Among the workers’ de- It is extremely unlikely that interfere with the sounds be- is doing its best to keep the
new cases per day and the mands are that workers who any survivors would be found ing detected by their instru- containers safe. Al-Qaisi said
country has been warned of test positive for COVID-19 a month after the blast that ments. he has repeatedly asked cus-
a possible second wave of in- must not be forced to work tore through Beirut in Au- Two days after the explo- toms authorities to take away
fections. The pandemic has so until they have fully recov- gust when nearly 3,000 tons sion, a French rescue team the material.
far claimed more than 14,300 ered. There are allegations of ammonium nitrate ignited and Lebanese civil defense Days after the Aug. 4 blast,
lives in South Africa, accord- that some managers have at the port. The explosion volunteers had looked into French and Italian chemi-
ing to official figures. South forced workers back to work killed 191 people and injured the rubble of the very same cal experts working amid the
Africa has recorded 630,595 before they have even fin- 6,000 others and is consid- building, where the ground remains of the port identi-
positive cases of COVID-19, ished the mandatory quaran- ered to be one of the big- floor used to be a bar. At the fied more than 20 containers
the highest in Africa, and the tine or isolation time. gest non-nuclear explosions time, they had no reason to carrying dangerous chemi-
sixth-highest in the world. They have also demanded to ever recorded. Thousands of believe there were any bodies cals. The army later said that
More than 27,300 health be informed of the numbers homes were damaged. or survivors left at the site. these containers were moved
workers have tested positive of new COVID-19 cases at “Ninety-nine percent there In another chilling remind- and stored safely in locations
and 230 have died from the health facilities.q isn’t anything, but even if er of the horrific explosion away from the port. q