JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African shoppers filled trolleys with cases of beer and cider and bottles of whiskey and wine on Monday as the government eased the coronavirus lockdown to allow the sale of alcohol to resume after a nine-week ban. South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption per capita in the world, banned the sale of liquor in late March to ease hospital workloads and prevent a rise in domestic violence related to alcohol abuse during lockdown. Under...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Hairdresser Beauty Matunhira arrives at her client’s home in Johannesburg armed with dye, relaxer and gel, ready to tackle her next case of lockdown hair. Discreet house calls have become routine for Matunhira, who found herself out of a job when salons and barber shops were forced to close under South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown, now in its 11th week. At times she is even forced to sneak into apartment buildings to avoid detection by security guards, but it’s...

(Corrects headline to refer to “data”) * Telecom regulator grants temporary spectrum to ease congestion * MTN said it will take four to six weeks for rollout plan * Vodacom to use parts of additional spectrum in 2 weeks, co said * MTN, Vodacom have seen huge surge in data traffic since lockdown JOHANNESBURG, April 17 (Reuters) – South Africa’s mobile operators said on Friday they could need around two to four weeks to deliver better data speeds to customers, after the telecom regulator...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 500 billion rand ($26.3 billion) rescue package on Tuesday, equivalent to 10% of the GDP of Africa’s most industrialized nation, to try to cushion the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic requires an economic response that is equal to the scale of the disruption it is causing,” he said in an address on national television, pledging to “address the extreme decline in supply and demand and to...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African retailer Edcon will file for bankruptcy protection in the next few days, it said on Wednesday, becoming the country’s first major corporate casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. Edcon said it had lost 2 billion rand ($108 million) of sales since the virus reached South Africa in early March and the government responded with a nationwide lockdown that forced non-essential shops to close. That hit, coupled with a decline in collections from debtors, meant...