Out of every R1 paid in taxes, 58 cents goes towards paying the salaries of public servants
Source: Leon Schreiber, Democratic Alliance shadow minister for public service and administration (June 2020)
51.4% of total tax revenue goes to public servant salaries, or 51.4 cents out of every R1 in tax.
As many as “51% of South African women have experienced violence at the hands of someone with whom they are in a relationship”.
Source: South African president Cyril Ramaphosa (13 June 2020)
The most recent, nationally representative data, from 2016, shows 26% of South African women reported intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
34,000 hospital beds in South Africa are being taken up by alcohol-related cases.
Source: Bheki Cele, South African minister of police (June 2020)
An unpublished study estimated there were 11,750 alcohol-related trauma admissions per week after the alcohol ban was lifted.
South Africa is “number one in the killing of women” internationally.
Source: Lindiwe Zulu, South Africa’s minister of social development (25 June 2020)
The most recent numbers indicate that while the rate that South African women are killed is nearly five times the global average, three other countries are ahead in this grisly ranking.
South Africa is losing R35 million every day in tax revenue because of the ban on cigarettes.
Source: Yusuf Abramjee, founder of Tax Justice South Africa (29 April 2020)
Excise tax revenues for tobacco sales in April 2020, the first full month of the Covid-19 lockdown, were down more than R36 million daily compared to April 2019.
Depo-Provera increases women’s risk of HIV infection by 40%.
Source: Twitter (March and April 2020)
A major study published in 2019 found that women using Depo-Provera had a risk of HIV infection no higher than 30%, compared to other contraceptives.
Alcohol weakens the immune system, making it difficult for the body to fight infections such as Covid-19.
Source: South African government on Twitter (2 April 2020)
Several studies have shown that alcohol use, particularly the binge drinking common in South Africa, reduces the body’s ability to fight infection.
South Africa has only 800 ICU beds in the whole country.
Source: WhatsApp message (2020)
The data is hard to come by, but there are far more than 800 ICU beds in the public and private health system.
Interferon alpha-2b is a vaccine for the new coronavirus.
Source: Mzwandile Masina, mayor of Ekurhuleni (18 March 2020)
Interferon alpha-2b has been used to treat some earlier strains of coronavirus, but it’s not a vaccine that would prevent people from getting Covid-19.
Two claims about rape statistics in South Africa
Source: Advocacy organisation Rape Crisis (February 2020)
One unproven, one misleading