News 18:00

BULLETIN 8 July 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane will oppose the bid to strike her from the advocates’ roll
# The Public Servants Association welcomes the recruitment of over 300 Immigration Officers to strengthen enforcement capacity
# And rugby, Rassie Erasmus says it’s important to find the next generation of world champions

# Impeached former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she will oppose the court application by the Legal Practice council to have her struck from the roll of advocates. The council in its High Court in Pretoria application alleges Mkhwebane’s dishonesty, incompetence and bias. Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, she described the move as politically motivated, baseless and argued she is being punished repeatedly for the same issues:

# Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police chairperson Ian Cameron says yesterday’s evidence at the Madlanga Commission has raised questions about alleged links between SAPS Major-General Feroz Khan and EFF leader and ad hoc committee member, Julius Malema. Cameron says earlier concerns included procurement matters, and influence over oversight processes as evidence alleged Khan used Malema to raise parliamentary questions. He revealed Malema’s previous rejection on Khan’s appearance at the committee:

# The Public Servants Association has welcomed the timely intervention by the Department of Home Affairs to strengthen immigration enforcement and complement the ongoing strategy to digitise its systems and processes. The department will recruit an additional 301 Immigration Officers. PSA’s Claude Naicker says these appointments come at a time when communities have expressed concerns over the presence of undocumented foreign nationals and the perceived impact on public services, employment opportunities and community safety:

# US president Donald Trump told the NATO summit in Turkey last month’s interim deal with Iran was over. He calls Iranian leaders ‘scum’ and says dealing with them was a waste of time, roiling oil and stock markets. This follows after the US military launched overnight strikes against Iran, saying they were in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s military says it struck back by targeting US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait with missiles and drones.

# Rugby: The Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is willing to lose some matches in order to find the next generation of world champions. Versatile Pieter-Steph du Toit, who has 96 caps to his credit, will captain a relatively inexperienced side in Saturday’s Nations Championship encounter against Scotland at Loftus. Different from other countries, Erasmus and his assistants believe introducing debutants in high-stakes matches tells them more about players than in less important games. Assistant coach Duane Vermeulen doesn’t see the ten changes to the starting team as a risk.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-41-cents against the rand and the euro at 18-rand-72-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-94-cents and Bitcoin trades at 61-thousand-791-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-53-dollars-85-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-56-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….