News 15:00

BULLETIN 8 February 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The EFF won’t attend SONA after six members were barred 
# The DA is to pursue charges against Road Accident Fund executives
# And Cricket: A place in the SA20 final is at stake in tonight’s second qualifier

# The EFF says it won’t attend tonight’s state of the nation address in Cape Town after this morning’s judgment. The Western Cape High Court rejected EFF leader Julius Malema, deputy president Floyd Shivambu and four more Members of Parliament to overturn their suspension from the opening of Parliament. This followed after they disrupted SONA a year ago. The EFF says partial participation in the activities would imply some of its members agree with Parliament’s unlawful, undemocratic and unconstitutional decision to banish elected members.

Meanwhile, a local government expert, Miyelani Holeni, has called on president Cyril Ramaphosa to prioritise addressing poor governance in municipalities during his State of the Nation Address. Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Holeni highlighted the ongoing challenges including service delivery, leadership, and governance. Holeni emphasised the need for Ramaphosa to tackle load-shedding and infrastructure challenges, while also focusing on revitalising the economy at the municipal level:

# The DA says it will be pursuing charges against Road Accident Fund executives. This is for misleading Parliament by repeatedly insisting on using an accounting standard that falsifies the RAF’s current debt profile by as much as 90 percent. The DA’s Alf Lees says there is a strong basis for charging the RAF Board of Directors, including the CEO, Collins Letsoalo with dereliction of duty and declaring them delinquent directors under the Companies Act:

# Cricket: Durban Super Giants and Joburg Super Kings will fight it out at the Wanderers in Johannesburg tonight for a place in the final of the SA20. JSK reached the second qualifier when they defeated Paarl Royals by nine wickets in yesterday’s eliminator at the same venue. Tonight’s winner will face Sunrisers Eastern Cape after the defending champions beat the Super Giants in the first qualifier. The final will be played at Newlands in Cape Town Saturday night.

# And finally: British amateur photographer, Nima Sarikhani, has won this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award. The winning photograph is titled, Ice Bed, and is an image of a napping polar bear curled up on an iceberg. It was captured off Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. It was chosen from a shortlist of 25 images, which was previously narrowed down from around 50-thousand entries. Sarikhani says he hopes that the photograph inspires hope that there is still time to fix the climate mess humans have caused.

Stay tuned for more news………….