A senior opposition leader said that the lockdown—aimed not to prevent the spread of Covid-19 but to give the health services a window to prepare for it—was now doing more harm than good.

The national coronavirus lockdown has translated into a sharp increase in levels of poverty and malnutrition in South Africa. Because of that emerging suffering, some are already beginning to wonder if the nationwide restrictions are doing more harm than good.

The national measures being taken against the spread of the coronavirus in South Africa are unprecedented and are considered among the strictest in the world.

In the series finale of ‘Plague,’ Mike looks at what’s happening in the church in HIV and AIDS care today and then reflects on comments and questions from listeners about the ongoing debates over LGBT issues in the Catholic Church.

About 3,000 women were murdered in South Africa in 2018 -- five times more than the global average, according to the World Health Organization.

Police arrested at least 70 people in South Africa's commercial capital, Johannesburg, Sept. 2, after protesters looted mostly foreign-owned shops and set fire to cars and buildings in the second outbreak of urban rioting in a week.