News 17:00

BULLETIN 11 September 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Rise Mzansi warns of weak municipal accountability
# The DA says the 33-billion-rand National Student Financial Aid Scheme shortfall shows the funding model is unsustainable
# And: A coach crash in the Swiss Alps kills five and injures 40

# RISE Mzansi leader and the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Songezo Zibi, says the biggest challenge facing local government is a lack of accountability. In a media panel discussion on the future of the metro’s, Zibi said the Auditor-General’s findings are designed to highlight real-world harm caused by poor governance, yet municipal councils repeatedly fail to act on these warnings. He says treating internal oversight as optional allows service delivery failures to worsen and called for improved municipal governance:

# The DA says the projected 33-billion-rand shortfall at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme by 2029 shows that the current funding model is no longer sustainable. The party is calling for the scheme to be decentralised, with universities and TVET colleges taking greater responsibility for managing student funding. The DA’s Delmaine Christians says the scheme already has a deficit of about 15-billion-rand and supports around 800-thousand students:

# Gauteng police say a coordinated approach involving law enforcement, government, businesses and communities is helping to fight crime. Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Tommy Mthombeni says Operation Shanela 2 resulted in 88-thousand-584 arrests, including 14-thousand-256 illegal immigrants. Police recovered 282 firearms, nearly six-thousand rounds of ammunition and 144-stolen or hijacked vehicles. Contact crime fell by three-percent, property-related crime by 2.7-percent, while gender-based violence and femicide declined by 9.1-percent. He highlighted that attempted murder and assault remain concerns.

# Five people have died and 40 were injured after a Dutch tour coach crashed near the Swiss Alpine village of Susch in eastern Switzerland. The bus, carrying 45 Dutch tourists, overturned on a road that was partly closed for maintenance. Three of the injured are in serious condition, while seven others have moderately serious injuries. Emergency crews, including helicopters, rushed to the scene. The identities of those killed have not yet been released. Swiss authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.

# Motorsport: George Russell says he will need some luck to catch Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli and win Formula One’s drivers’ championship. He has not beaten Antonelli since the British Grand Prix in July, with the Italian fighting back from 19th to win his home race in Monza. The Briton is 66 points behind Antonelli with ten races remaining, starting with this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, but hasn’t given up all hope:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-11-cents against the rand and the euro at 18-rand-69-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-79-cents and Bitcoin trades at 77-thousand-851-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-386-dollars-41-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 105-dollars-64-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….