News 09:00

BULLETIN 1 September 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa appoints Leonard Lekgetho as the new head of the Special Investigation Unit
# The ANC welcomes Eskom’s second consecutive year of profitability
# And cricket: Marnus Labuschagne is omitted from Australia’s ODI squad

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Leonard Lekgetho as the new head of the Special Investigating Unit with effect from today. He succeeds Advocate Andy Mothibi, who left the position in February to become the National Director of Public Prosecutions. Lekgetho has 19 years of experience at the SIU, during which he has served in diverse portfolios including chief forensic investigator and assistant project manager. Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, says Lekgetho’s appointment is intended to provide stability to the SIU:

# The ANC Parliamentary Caucus has described Eskom’s latest financial results as a significant milestone in the turnaround of South Africa’s electricity sector. The power utility posted a profit after tax of 30.3-billion-rand for the year ended March 2026, up sharply from 14-billion-rand a year earlier. Eskom says the result was driven largely by improved power station performance, cost discipline and lower reliance on emergency diesel generation. The ANC says this shows that decisive government intervention, sound leadership, operational discipline, and sustained investment are delivering results.

# The South African Federation of Trade Unions says it has consistently maintained that the corruption at Tembisa Hospital was never an isolated case of administrative misconduct, but represented the systematic looting of public resources. This follows the arrest of businessman Stefan Joel Govindraju, who is linked to the over two-billion-rand tender fraud at the hospital. He appeared in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court yesterday, where he was granted 200-thousand-rand bail. SAFTU’s Asive Dyani says more people need to be held accountable:

# Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says he had a detailed and constructive phone call with US president Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. They discussed further coordination between the negotiating teams and developing solutions to achieve peace. Zelensky says he informed Witkoff and Kushner about the situation on the battlefield, where Russia’s gains are minor and come at the cost of enormous losses, as well as about the latest air strikes. He emphasised the importance of maintaining an ongoing dialogue between the US and Ukrainian negotiating teams.

# Cricket: Australia has named its ODI squad to take on Zimbabwe and South Africa, with Marnus Labuschagne being the notable exclusion. He struggled on the tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh in June. Mitch Marsh, Travis Head and Josh Hazlewood return, while youngsters Joel Davies and Ollie Peake maintain their places in the squad. Joel Davies is in line to make his ODI debut. Australia will play three matches against Zimbabwe from September 15 and another trio of matches against the Proteas from September 24.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-11-cents and the euro at 18-rand-69-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-81-cents, and Bitcoin trades at 78-thousand-819-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-430-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 93-dollars-43-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….